Commit 449e14a5 authored by Peter Geoghegan's avatar Peter Geoghegan

Doc: Describe CREATE INDEX deduplication strategy.

The B-Tree index deduplication strategy used during CREATE INDEX and
REINDEX differs from the lazy strategy used by retail inserts.  Make
that clear by adding a new paragraph to the B-Tree implementation
section of the documentation.

In passing, do some copy-editing of nearby deduplication documentation.
parent 3350fb5d
...@@ -622,12 +622,13 @@ equalimage(<replaceable>opcintype</replaceable> <type>oid</type>) returns bool ...@@ -622,12 +622,13 @@ equalimage(<replaceable>opcintype</replaceable> <type>oid</type>) returns bool
</para> </para>
<note> <note>
<para> <para>
While NULL is generally not considered to be equal to any other B-Tree deduplication is just as effective with
value, including NULL, NULL is nevertheless treated as just <quote>duplicates</quote> that contain a NULL value, even though
another value from the domain of indexed values by the B-Tree NULL values are never equal to each other according to the
implementation (except when enforcing uniqueness in a unique <literal>=</literal> member of any B-Tree operator class. As far
index). B-Tree deduplication is therefore just as effective with as any part of the implementation that understands the on-disk
<quote>duplicates</quote> that contain a NULL value. B-Tree structure is concerned, NULL is just another value from the
domain of indexed values.
</para> </para>
</note> </note>
<para> <para>
...@@ -642,6 +643,20 @@ equalimage(<replaceable>opcintype</replaceable> <type>oid</type>) returns bool ...@@ -642,6 +643,20 @@ equalimage(<replaceable>opcintype</replaceable> <type>oid</type>) returns bool
see a moderate performance benefit from using deduplication. see a moderate performance benefit from using deduplication.
Deduplication is enabled by default. Deduplication is enabled by default.
</para> </para>
<para>
<command>CREATE INDEX</command> and <command>REINDEX</command>
apply deduplication to create posting list tuples, though the
strategy they use is slightly different. Each group of duplicate
ordinary tuples encountered in the sorted input taken from the
table is merged into a posting list tuple
<emphasis>before</emphasis> being added to the current pending leaf
page. Individual posting list tuples are packed with as many
<acronym>TID</acronym>s as possible. Leaf pages are written out in
the usual way, without any separate deduplication pass. This
strategy is well-suited to <command>CREATE INDEX</command> and
<command>REINDEX</command> because they are once-off batch
operations.
</para>
<para> <para>
Write-heavy workloads that don't benefit from deduplication due to Write-heavy workloads that don't benefit from deduplication due to
having few or no duplicate values in indexes will incur a small, having few or no duplicate values in indexes will incur a small,
...@@ -657,17 +672,22 @@ equalimage(<replaceable>opcintype</replaceable> <type>oid</type>) returns bool ...@@ -657,17 +672,22 @@ equalimage(<replaceable>opcintype</replaceable> <type>oid</type>) returns bool
B-Tree indexes are not directly aware that under MVCC, there might B-Tree indexes are not directly aware that under MVCC, there might
be multiple extant versions of the same logical table row; to an be multiple extant versions of the same logical table row; to an
index, each tuple is an independent object that needs its own index index, each tuple is an independent object that needs its own index
entry. Thus, an update of a row always creates all-new index entry. <quote>Version duplicates</quote> may sometimes accumulate
entries for the row, even if the key values did not change. Some and adversely affect query latency and throughput. This typically
workloads suffer from index bloat caused by these occurs with <command>UPDATE</command>-heavy workloads where most
implementation-level version duplicates (this is typically a individual updates cannot apply the <acronym>HOT</acronym>
problem for <command>UPDATE</command>-heavy workloads that cannot optimization (often because at least one indexed column gets
apply the <acronym>HOT</acronym> optimization due to modifying at modified, necessitating a new set of index tuple versions &mdash;
least one indexed column). B-Tree deduplication does not one new tuple for <emphasis>each and every</emphasis> index). In
distinguish between these implementation-level version duplicates effect, B-Tree deduplication ameliorates index bloat caused by
and conventional duplicates. Deduplication can nevertheless help version churn. Note that even the tuples from a unique index are
with controlling index bloat caused by implementation-level version not necessarily <emphasis>physically</emphasis> unique when stored
churn. on disk due to version churn. The deduplication optimization is
selectively applied within unique indexes. It targets those pages
that appear to have version duplicates. The high level goal is to
give <command>VACUUM</command> more time to run before an
<quote>unnecessary</quote> page split caused by version churn can
take place.
</para> </para>
<tip> <tip>
<para> <para>
......
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