Re: Storage Location Patch Proposal for V7.3

Tom Lane wrote:
> 
> "Jim Buttafuoco" <jim@buttafuoco.net> writes:
> > I propose to add a default data location, index and temporary locations
> > to the pg_shadow table to allow a DBA to specify locations for each
> > user when they create databases, tables and indexes or need temporary
> > disk storage (either for temporary tables or sort files).
> 
> Have you read any of the previous discussions about tablespaces?
> This seems to be tablespaces with an off-the-cuff syntax.  I'd
> suggest taking a hard look at Oracle's tablespace facility and
> seeing how closely we want to duplicate that.

Sorry I missed the conversation about tablespaces. One of the reasons I think
Postgres is so usable is because it does not require the use of tablespace
files. If by tablespace, you mean to declare a directory on a device as a
tablespace, then cool. If you want to create tablespace "files" ala Oracle, you
are heading toward an administration nightmare. Don't get me wrong, the ability
to use a file as a tablespace would be kind of cool, i.e. you can probably use
raw devices, but please to not abandon the way postgres currently works.

On our Oracle server, we have run out of space on our tablespace files and not
known it was coming. I am the system architect, not the DBA, so I don't have
(nor want) direct control over the oracle database operation. Our newbe DBA did
not make the table correctly, so they did not grow. Alas he was laid off, thus
we were left trying to figure out what was happening.

Postgres is easier to configure and get right. IMHO that is one of its very
important strengths. It is almost trivial to get a working SQL system up and
running which performs well.