Re: possible patch to increase number of hash overflow pages?

Bruce,

Sure, I would be happy to look into this.  I'm a Postgres beginner, so it
may take me a while to get up to speed.  But am happy to develop and run
some tests, identify potential or actual issues or problems, and attempt
to remedy any issues I might find.

Cheers,
Steve Ramsey

---------------------------------------------
Stephen Ramsey

Software Engineer
Core Software Development
Internap Network Services

e-mail           sramsey@internap.com
telephone     206.504.5361
facsimile     206.447.1870
---------------------------------------------

On Tue, 19 Jun 2001, Bruce Momjian wrote:

> > It looks (from the hash algorithm code) as if the system is possibly
> > needing more splitpoints than can be accomodated by the HashMetaPageData
> > structure, rather than running out of overflow pages, because the error
> > message that I'm getting is when the "splitnum" variable is greater than
> > NCACHED, the latter being the array bound for the hashm_spares[] element
> > of the HashMetaPageData structure.  From src/backend/access/hashovfl.c:
> >
> > #define OVMSG   "HASH: Out of overflow pages.  Out of luck.\n"
> >
> >         if (offset > SPLITMASK)
> >         {
> >                 if (++splitnum >= NCACHED)
> >                         elog(ERROR, OVMSG);
> >                 metap->OVFL_POINT = splitnum;
> >                 metap->SPARES[splitnum] = metap->SPARES[splitnum - 1];
> >                 metap->SPARES[splitnum - 1]--;
> >                 offset = 0;
> >         }
> >
> > So that's why I bumped the number of bits (in the OverflowPageAddress
> > type) assigned to keep track of splitpoints to 8 bits.
>
> If you want to work on the hash stuff, let us know.  We are looking for
> someone to do performance testing and debugging on hash indexes.
>
> --
>   Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
>   pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
>   +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
>   +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026
>
>