Wrap-around XID's

Hello,

Two years ago, I lead a smallish project which implemented a PostgreSQL v7.3 database on the Linux platform. The size of the database is only about 50MB, but all has been well. So, I have become a PostgreSQL advocate, preaching its value wherever I go.

However, my company is now planning a large scale enterprise database system with accompanying API's and web UI's. Of course, I proposed we use PostgreSQL again, but one of our technology partners objected.

The objection is the wrap-around problem with XID's. We read together the v8.0 docs and saw the work-around solution (section 21.1.3), using the VACUUM command. However, our technology partner still warned against using PostgreSQL.

What I need:

1) More detail on the use of XID's by PostgreSQL, so I can better understand the problem.

2) An explanation that the work-around is sufficient.

3) I see that PostgreSQL has an 8-byte data type (bigint) which would all but the solve the problem. Are there any plans to offer 8-byte XID's in future versions of PostgreSQL?

Thank you very much for your help,

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Michael Tamburro
Director, Information Technology Department
Technologue, Inc.
www.technologue.com
610-430-0104 x29