Re: COPY vs INSERT

On 5/4/05, Mischa Sandberg <mischa.sandberg@telus.net> wrote:
> Quoting David Roussel <pgsql-performance@diroussel.xsmail.com>:
>
> > > COPY invokes all the same logic as INSERT on the server side
> > > (rowexclusive locking, transaction log, updating indexes, rules).
> > > The difference is that all the rows are inserted as a single
> > > transaction. This reduces the number of fsync's on the xlog,
> > > which may be a limiting factor for you. You'll want to crank
> > > WAL_BUFFERS and CHECKPOINT_SEGMENTS to match, though.
> > > One of my streams has 6K records; I run with WB=1000, CS=128.
> >
> > So what's the difference between a COPY and a batch of INSERT
> > statements.  Also, surely, fsyncs only occur at the end of a
> > transaction, no need to fsync before a commit has been issued,
> > right?
>
> Sorry, I was comparing granularities the other way araound. As far as
> xlog is concerned, a COPY is ALWAYS one big txn, no matter how many
> putline commands you use to feed the copy. With inserts, you can choose
> whether to commit every row, every nth row, etc.
>
> Copy makes better use of the TCP connection for transmission. COPY uses
> the TCP connection like a one-way pipe. INSERT is like an RPC: the
> sender has to wait until the insert's return status roundtrips.

I have found even greater performance increases by using COPY FROM
<filename> not COPY FROM STDIN.  This allows the backend process to
directly read the file, rather than shoving it over a pipe (thereby
potentially hitting the CPU multiple times).  My experience is that
this is anywhere from 5-10x faster than INSERT statements on the
whole, and sometimes 200x.

Chris

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| Christopher Petrilli
| petrilli@gmail.com