Re: Pluggable Indexes (was Re: rmgr hooks (v2))

Simon Riggs wrote:
> Without the patch it is completely *impossible* to write an index plugin
> that is *recoverable*.

It's also impossible to do many other things without modifying the 
source code. Bitmap indexam had to do it, my clustered indexes had to do 
it, GIN had to do it.

> Yes, we have pluggable indexes now, but unless
> they are recoverable we certainly can't ever use them in production.

Sure you can. Just Do It, if that's what you want. If you're willing to 
write a custom indexam, and run it in production, compiling PostgreSQL 
from source and patching it isn't such a stretch.

Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not against pluggable indexes in 
principle. I just don't believe this patch brings us closer to that goal 
in any significant way.

> With the patch, you still have to write the index code. I agree it is
> hard code to write, but not impossible. I would go so far as to say that
> the patch helps you 0% with the task of actually writing the plugin. But
> the patch enables you to start and that is all its intended as: an
> enabler.

Nothing stops you from starting right now, without this plugin. This is 
open source.

--   Heikki Linnakangas  EnterpriseDB   http://www.enterprisedb.com