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        <H1>Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for PostgreSQL</H1>
    
        <P>Last updated: Wed Aug 25 23:18:13 EDT 2004</P>
    
        <P>Current maintainer: Bruce Momjian (<A href=
        "mailto:pgman@candle.pha.pa.us">pgman@candle.pha.pa.us</A>)<BR>
        </P>
    
        <P>The most recent version of this document can be viewed at <A href=
        "http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faqs/FAQ.html">http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faqs/FAQ.html</A>.</P>
    
        <P>Platform-specific questions are answered at <A href=
        "http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/index.html">http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/index.html</A>.</P>
        <HR>
    
        <H2 align="center">General Questions</H2>
        <A href="#1.1">1.1</A>) What is PostgreSQL? How is it pronounced?<BR>
         <A href="#1.2">1.2</A>) What is the copyright on PostgreSQL?<BR>
         <A href="#1.3">1.3</A>) What Unix platforms does PostgreSQL run
        on?<BR>
         <A href="#1.4">1.4</A>) What non-Unix ports are available?<BR>
         <A href="#1.5">1.5</A>) Where can I get PostgreSQL?<BR>
         <A href="#1.6">1.6</A>) Where can I get support?<BR>
         <A href="#1.7">1.7</A>) What is the latest release?<BR>
         <A href="#1.8">1.8</A>) What documentation is available?<BR>
         <A href="#1.9">1.9</A>) How do I find out about known bugs or
        missing features?<BR>
         <A href="#1.10">1.10</A>) How can I learn <SMALL>SQL</SMALL>?<BR>
         <A href="#1.11">1.11</A>) Is PostgreSQL Y2K compliant?<BR>
         <A href="#1.12">1.12</A>) How do I join the development team?<BR>
         <A href="#1.13">1.13</A>) How do I submit a bug report?<BR>
         <A href="#1.14">1.14</A>) How does PostgreSQL compare to other
        <SMALL>DBMS</SMALL>s?<BR>
         <A href="#1.15">1.15</A>) How can I financially assist
        PostgreSQL?<BR>
         
    
        <H2 align="center">User Client Questions</H2>
        <A href="#2.1">2.1</A>) Are there <SMALL>ODBC</SMALL> drivers for
        PostgreSQL?<BR>
         <A href="#2.2">2.2</A>) What tools are available for using
        PostgreSQL with Web pages?<BR>
         <A href="#2.3">2.3</A>) Does PostgreSQL have a graphical user
        interface?<BR>
         <A href="#2.4">2.4</A>) What languages are available to
        communicate with PostgreSQL?<BR>
         
    
        <H2 align="center">Administrative Questions</H2>
        <A href="#3.1">3.1</A>) How do I install PostgreSQL somewhere other
        than <I>/usr/local/pgsql</I>?<BR>
         <A href="#3.2">3.2</A>) When I start <I>postmaster</I>, I get a
        <I>Bad System Call</I> or core dumped message. Why?<BR>
         <A href="#3.3">3.3</A>) When I try to start <I>postmaster</I>, I
        get <I>IpcMemoryCreate</I> errors. Why?<BR>
         <A href="#3.4">3.4</A>) When I try to start <I>postmaster</I>, I
        get <I>IpcSemaphoreCreate</I> errors. Why?<BR>
         <A href="#3.5">3.5</A>) How do I control connections from other
        hosts?<BR>
         <A href="#3.6">3.6</A>) How do I tune the database engine for
        better performance?<BR>
         <A href="#3.7">3.7</A>) What debugging features are available?<BR>
         <A href="#3.8">3.8</A>) Why do I get <I>"Sorry, too many
        clients"</I> when trying to connect?<BR>
         <A href="#3.9">3.9</A>) What is in the  <I>pgsql_tmp</I>
        directory?<BR>
         <A href="#3.10">3.10</A>) Why do I need to do a dump and restore
        to upgrade PostgreSQL releases?<BR>
         <A href="#3.11">3.11</A>) What computer hardware should I use?<BR>
    
    
        <H2 align="center">Operational Questions</H2>
        <A href="#4.1">4.1</A>) What is the difference between binary
        cursors and normal cursors?<BR>
         <A href="#4.2">4.2</A>) How do I <SMALL>SELECT</SMALL> only the
        first few rows of a query?  A random row?<BR>
         <A href="#4.3">4.3</A>) How do I get a list of tables or other
        things I can see in <I>psql</I>?<BR>
         <A href="#4.4">4.4</A>) How do you remove a column from a
        table, or change it's data type?<BR>
         <A href="#4.5">4.5</A>) What is the maximum size for a row, a
        table, and a database?<BR>
         <A href="#4.6">4.6</A>) How much database disk space is required
        to store data from a typical text file?<BR>
         <A href="#4.7">4.7</A>) How do I find out what tables, indexes,
        databases, and users are defined?<BR>
         <A href="#4.8">4.8</A>) My queries are slow or don't make use of
        the indexes. Why?<BR>
         <A href="#4.9">4.9</A>) How do I see how the query optimizer is
        evaluating my query?<BR>
         <A href="#4.10">4.10</A>) What is an R-tree index?<BR>
         <A href="#4.11">4.11</A>) What is the Genetic Query Optimizer?<BR>
         <A href="#4.12">4.12</A>) How do I perform regular expression
        searches and case-insensitive regular expression searches? How do I
        use an index for case-insensitive searches?<BR>
         <A href="#4.13">4.13</A>) In a query, how do I detect if a field
        is <SMALL>NULL</SMALL>?<BR>
         <A href="#4.14">4.14</A>) What is the difference between the
        various character types?<BR>
         <A href="#4.15.1">4.15.1</A>) How do I create a
        serial/auto-incrementing field?<BR>
         <A href="#4.15.2">4.15.2</A>) How do I get the value of a
        <SMALL>SERIAL</SMALL> insert?<BR>
         <A href="#4.15.3">4.15.3</A>) Don't <I>currval()</I> and
        <I>nextval()</I> lead to a race condition with other users?<BR>
         <A href="#4.15.4">4.15.4</A>) Why aren't my sequence numbers
        reused on transaction abort? Why are there gaps in the numbering of
        my sequence/SERIAL column?<BR>
         <A href="#4.16">4.16</A>) What is an <SMALL>OID</SMALL>? What is a
        <SMALL>TID</SMALL>?<BR>
         <A href="#4.17">4.17</A>) What is the meaning of some of the terms
        used in PostgreSQL?<BR>
         <A href="#4.18">4.18</A>) Why do I get the error <I>"ERROR: Memory
        exhausted in AllocSetAlloc()"</I>?<BR>
         <A href="#4.19">4.19</A>) How do I tell what PostgreSQL version I
        am running?<BR>
         <A href="#4.20">4.20</A>) Why does my large-object operations get
        <I>"invalid large obj descriptor"</I>?<BR>
         <A href="#4.21">4.21</A>) How do I create a column that will
        default to the current time?<BR>
         <A href="#4.22">4.22</A>) Why are my subqueries using
        <CODE><SMALL>IN</SMALL></CODE> so slow?<BR>
         <A href="#4.23">4.23</A>) How do I perform an outer join?<BR>
         <A href="#4.24">4.24</A>) How do I perform queries using multiple
        databases?<BR>
         <A href="#4.25">4.25</A>) How do I return multiple rows or columns
        from a function?<BR>
         <A href="#4.26">4.26</A>) Why can't I reliably create/drop
        temporary tables in PL/PgSQL functions?<BR>
         <A href="#4.27">4.27</A>) What replication options are available?<BR>
         <A href="#4.28">4.28</A>) What encryption options are available?<BR>
         
    
        <H2 align="center">Extending PostgreSQL</H2>
        <A href="#5.1">5.1</A>) I wrote a user-defined function. When I run
        it in <I>psql</I>, why does it dump core?<BR>
         <A href="#5.2">5.2</A>) How can I contribute some nifty new types
        and functions to PostgreSQL?<BR>
         <A href="#5.3">5.3</A>) How do I write a C function to return a
        tuple?<BR>
         <A href="#5.4">5.4</A>) I have changed a source file. Why does the
        recompile not see the change?<BR>
         
        <HR>
    
        <H2 align="center">General Questions</H2>
    
        <H4><A name="1.1">1.1</A>) What is PostgreSQL? How is it pronounced?</H4>
    
        <P>PostgreSQL is pronounced <I>Post-Gres-Q-L</I>.  An audio file is 
           available at http://www.postgresql.org/postgresql.mp3 for those 
           would like to hear the pronunciation. 
        </P>
    
        <P>PostgreSQL is an enhancement of the POSTGRES database management
        system (and is still sometimes reffered to as simply "Postgres"), 
        a next-generation <SMALL>DBMS</SMALL> research prototype.
        While PostgreSQL retains the powerful data model and rich data
        types of POSTGRES, it replaces the PostQuel query language with an
        extended subset of <SMALL>SQL</SMALL>. PostgreSQL is free and the
        complete source is available.</P>
    
        <P>PostgreSQL development is performed by a team of
        developers who all subscribe to the PostgreSQL development mailing
        list. The current coordinator is Marc G. Fournier (<A href=
        "mailto:scrappy@PostgreSQL.org">scrappy@PostgreSQL.org</A>). (See
        section <a href="#1.6">1.6</a> on how to join). This team is now
        responsible for all development of PostgreSQL.  It is a community
        project and is not controlled by any company.  To get involved, see
        the developer's FAQ at <A href=
        "http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faqs/FAQ_DEV.html">http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/faqs/FAQ_DEV.html</A>
        </P>
    
        <P>The authors of PostgreSQL 1.01 were Andrew Yu and Jolly Chen.
        Many others have contributed to the porting, testing, debugging,
        and enhancement of the code. The original Postgres code, from which
        PostgreSQL is derived, was the effort of many graduate students,
        undergraduate students, and staff programmers working under the
        direction of Professor Michael Stonebraker at the University of
        California, Berkeley.</P>
    
        <P>The original name of the software at Berkeley was Postgres. When
        <SMALL>SQL</SMALL> functionality was added in 1995, its name was
        changed to Postgres95. The name was changed at the end of 1996 to
        PostgreSQL.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="1.2">1.2</A>) What is the copyright on
        PostgreSQL?</H4>
    
        <P>PostgreSQL is subject to the following COPYRIGHT:</P>
    
        <P>PostgreSQL Data Base Management System</P>
    
        <P>Portions copyright (c) 1996-2004, PostgreSQL Global Development
        Group Portions Copyright (c) 1994-6 Regents of the University of
        California</P>
    
        <P>Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software
        and its documentation for any purpose, without fee, and without a
        written agreement is hereby granted, provided that the above
        copyright notice and this paragraph and the following two
        paragraphs appear in all copies.</P>
    
        <P>IN NO EVENT SHALL THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BE LIABLE TO ANY
        PARTY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
        DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
        SOFTWARE AND ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF THE UNIVERSITY OF
        CALIFORNIA HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.</P>
    
        <P>THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY
        WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
        OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE
        SOFTWARE PROVIDED HEREUNDER IS ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND THE
        UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS NO OBLIGATIONS TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE,
        SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.</P>
    
        <P>The above is the BSD license, the classic open-source license.
        It has no restrictions on how the source code may be used. We like
        it and have no intention of changing it.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="1.3">1.3</A>) What Unix platforms does PostgreSQL run
        on?</H4>
    
        <P>In general, any modern Unix-compatible platform should be able to
        run PostgreSQL. The platforms that had received explicit testing at
        the time of release are listed in the installation
        instructions.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="1.4">1.4</A>) What non-Unix ports are available?</H4>
    
        <P>Starting with version 8.0, PostgreSQL now runs natively on
        Microsoft Windows NT-based operating systems like Win2000, WinXP,
        and Win2003.  A prepackaged installer is available at <a href=
        "http://pgfoundry.org/projects/pginstaller">
        http://pgfoundry.org/projects/pginstaller</a>.
    
        <p>There is also a Novell Netware 6 port at
        <a href="http://forge.novell.com">http://forge.novell.com</a>.</p>
    
        <H4><A name="1.5">1.5</A>) Where can I get PostgreSQL?</H4>
    
        <P>The primary anonymous ftp site for PostgreSQL is <A href=
        "ftp://ftp.PostgreSQL.org/pub">ftp://ftp.PostgreSQL.org/pub</A>.
        For mirror sites, see our main web site.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="1.6">1.6</A>) Where can I get support?</H4>
    
        <P>The main mailing list is: <A href=
        "mailto:pgsql-general@PostgreSQL.org">pgsql-general@PostgreSQL.org</A>.
        It is available for discussion of matters pertaining to PostgreSQL.
        To subscribe, send mail with the following lines in the body (not
        the subject line):</P>
    <PRE>
        subscribe
        end
    </PRE>
    
        <P>to <A href=
        "mailto:pgsql-general-request@PostgreSQL.org">pgsql-general-request@PostgreSQL.org</A>.</P>
    
        <P>There is also a digest list available. To subscribe to this
        list, send email to: <A href=
        "mailto:pgsql-general-digest-request@PostgreSQL.org">pgsql-general-digest-request@PostgreSQL.org</A>
        with a body of:</P>
    <PRE>
        subscribe
        end
    </PRE>
    
        Digests are sent out to members of this list whenever the main list
        has received around 30k of messages. 
    
        <P>The bugs mailing list is available. To subscribe to this list,
        send email to <A href=
        "mailto:pgsql-bugs-request@PostgreSQL.org">pgsql-bugs-request@PostgreSQL.org</A>
        with a body of:</P>
    <PRE>
        subscribe
        end
    </PRE>
    
        There is also a developers discussion mailing list available. To
        subscribe to this list, send email to <A href=
        "mailto:pgsql-hackers-request@PostgreSQL.org">pgsql-hackers-request@PostgreSQL.org</A>
        with a body of: 
    <PRE>
        subscribe
        end
    </PRE>
    
        <P>Additional mailing lists and information about PostgreSQL can be
        found via the PostgreSQL WWW home page at:</P>
    
        <BLOCKQUOTE>
          <A href="http://www.PostgreSQL.org">http://www.PostgreSQL.org</A>
        </BLOCKQUOTE>
    
        <P>There is also an IRC channel on Freenode and EFNet,
        channel <I>#PostgreSQL</I>. You can use the Unix command <CODE>irc -c
        '#PostgreSQL' "$USER" irc.phoenix.net.</CODE> or <CODE>irc -c
        '#PostgreSQL' "$USER" irc.freenode.net.</CODE></P>
    
        <P>A list of commercial support companies is available at <A href=
        "http://techdocs.postgresql.org/companies.php">http://techdocs.postgresql.org/companies.php</A>.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="1.7">1.7</A>) What is the latest release?</H4>
    
        <P>The latest release of PostgreSQL is version 7.4.5.</P>
    
        <P>We plan to have major releases every six to eight months.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="1.8">1.8</A>) What documentation is available?</H4>
    
        <P>Several manuals, manual pages, and some small test examples are
        included in the distribution. See the <I>/doc</I> directory. You
        can also browse the manuals online at <A href=
        "http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs">http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs</A>.</P>
    
        <P>There are two PostgreSQL books available online at <A href=
        "http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/awbook.html">http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/awbook.html</A>
        and <A href=
        "http://www.commandprompt.com/ppbook/">http://www.commandprompt.com/ppbook/</A>.
        There is a list of PostgreSQL books available for purchase at <A
        href=
        "http://techdocs.postgresql.org/techdocs/bookreviews.php">http://techdocs.PostgreSQL.org/techdocs/bookreviews.php</A>.
        There is also a collection of PostgreSQL technical articles at <A
        href=
        "http://techdocs.PostgreSQL.org/">http://techdocs.PostgreSQL.org/</A>.</P>
    
        <P><I>psql</I> has some nice \d commands to show information about
        types, operators, functions, aggregates, etc.</P>
    
        <P>Our web site contains even more documentation.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="1.9">1.9</A>) How do I find out about known bugs or
        missing features?</H4>
    
        <P>PostgreSQL supports an extended subset of <SMALL>SQL</SMALL>-92.
        See our <A href="http://developer.PostgreSQL.org/todo.php">TODO</A>
        list for known bugs, missing features, and future plans.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="1.10">1.10</A>) How can I learn
        <SMALL>SQL</SMALL>?</H4>
    
        <P>The PostgreSQL book at <A href=
        "http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/awbook.html">http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/awbook.html</A>
        teaches <SMALL>SQL</SMALL>. There is another PostgreSQL book at <A
        href=
        "http://www.commandprompt.com/ppbook/">http://www.commandprompt.com/ppbook.</A>
        There is a nice tutorial at <A href=
        "http://www.intermedia.net/support/sql/sqltut.shtm">http://www.intermedia.net/support/sql/sqltut.shtm,</A>
        at <A href=
        "http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/graeme_birchall/HTM_COOK.HTM">
        http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/graeme_birchall/HTM_COOK.HTM,</A>
        and at <A href=
        "http://sqlcourse.com/">http://sqlcourse.com.</A></P>
    
        <P>Another one is "Teach Yourself SQL in 21 Days, Second Edition"
        at <A href=
        "http://members.tripod.com/er4ebus/sql/index.htm">http://members.tripod.com/er4ebus/sql/index.htm</A></P>
    
        <P>Many of our users like <I>The Practical SQL Handbook</I>,
        Bowman, Judith S., et al., Addison-Wesley. Others like <I>The
        Complete Reference SQL</I>, Groff et al., McGraw-Hill.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="1.11">1.11</A>) Is PostgreSQL Y2K compliant?</H4>
    
        <P>Yes, we easily handle dates past the year 2000 AD, and before
        2000 BC.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="1.12">1.12</A>) How do I join the development
        team?</H4>
    
        <P>First, download the latest source and read the PostgreSQL
        Developers documentation on our web site, or in the distribution.
        Second, subscribe to the <I>pgsql-hackers</I> and
        <I>pgsql-patches</I> mailing lists. Third, submit high quality
        patches to pgsql-patches.</P>
    
        <P>There are about a dozen people who have commit privileges to the
        PostgreSQL <SMALL>CVS</SMALL> archive. They each have submitted so
        many high-quality patches that it was impossible for the existing
        committers to keep up, and we had confidence that patches they
        committed were of high quality.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="1.13">1.13</A>) How do I submit a bug report?</H4>
    
        <P>Please visit the PostgreSQL BugTool page at <A href=
        "http://www.PostgreSQL.org/bugs/bugs.php">http://www.PostgreSQL.org/bugs/bugs.php</A>,
        which gives guidelines and directions on how to submit a
        bug report.</P>
    
        <P>Also check out our ftp site <A href=
        "ftp://ftp.PostgreSQL.org/pub">ftp://ftp.PostgreSQL.org/pub</A> to
        see if there is a more recent PostgreSQL version or patches.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="1.14">1.14</A>) How does PostgreSQL compare to other
        <SMALL>DBMS</SMALL>s?</H4>
    
        <P>There are several ways of measuring software: features,
        performance, reliability, support, and price.</P>
    
        <DL>
          <DT><B>Features</B></DT>
    
          <DD>PostgreSQL has most features present in large commercial
          <SMALL>DBMS</SMALL>s, like transactions, subselects, triggers,
          views, foreign key referential integrity, and sophisticated
          locking. We have some features they do not have, like
          user-defined types, inheritance, rules, and multi-version
          concurrency control to reduce lock contention.<BR>
          <BR>
          </DD>
    
          <DT><B>Performance</B></DT>
    
          <DD>PostgreSQL has performance similar to other commercial and
          open source databases. it is faster for some things, slower for
          others. In comparison to MySQL or leaner database systems, we are
          faster for multiple users, complex queries, and a read/write query
          load.  MySQL is faster for simple SELECT queries done by a few users.
          Of course, MySQL does not have most of the features mentioned in the
          <I>Features</I> section above. We are built for reliability and
          features, and we continue to improve performance in every
          release. There is an interesting Web page comparing PostgreSQL to
          MySQL at <A href="http://openacs.org/philosophy/why-not-mysql.html">
          http://openacs.org/philosophy/why-not-mysql.html</A>  Also, MySQL is
          is a company that distributes its products via open source, and requires
          a commercial license for close-source software, not an
          open source development community like PostgreSQL.<BR>
    
          <BR>
          </DD>
    
          <DT><B>Reliability</B></DT>
    
          <DD>We realize that a <SMALL>DBMS</SMALL> must be reliable, or it
          is worthless. We strive to release well-tested, stable code that
          has a minimum of bugs. Each release has at least one month of
          beta testing, and our release history shows that we can provide
          stable, solid releases that are ready for production use. We
          believe we compare favorably to other database software in this
          area.<BR>
          <BR>
          </DD>
    
          <DT><B>Support</B></DT>
    
          <DD>Our mailing lists provide contact with a large group of developers
          and users to help resolve any problems encountered. While we cannot
          guarantee a fix, commercial <SMALL>DBMS</SMALL>s do not always
          supply a fix either. Direct access to developers, the user
          community, manuals, and the source code often make PostgreSQL
          support superior to other <SMALL>DBMS</SMALL>s. There is
          commercial per-incident support available for those who need it.
          (See <A href="#1.6">FAQ section 1.6</A>.)<BR>
          <BR>
          </DD>
    
          <DT><B>Price</B></DT>
    
          <DD>We are free for all use, both commercial and non-commercial.
          You can add our code to your product with no limitations, except
          those outlined in our BSD-style license stated above.<BR>
          <BR>
          </DD>
        </DL>
    
        <H4><A name="1.15">1.15</A>) How can I financially assist
        PostgreSQL?</H4>
    
        <P>PostgreSQL has had a first-class infrastructure since we started
        in 1996. This is all thanks to Marc Fournier, who has created
        and managed this infrastructure over the years.</P>
    
        <P>Quality infrastructure is very important to an open-source
        project. It prevents disruptions that can greatly delay forward
        movement of the project.</P>
    
        <P>Of course, this infrastructure is not cheap. There are a variety
        of monthly and one-time expenses that are required to keep it
        going. If you or your company has money it can donate to help fund
        this effort, please go to <A href="http://store.pgsql.com/shopping/">http://store.pgsql.com/shopping/</A>
        and make a donation.</P>
    
        <P>Although the web page mentions PostgreSQL, Inc, the
        "contributions" item is solely to support the PostgreSQL project
        and does not fund any specific company. If you prefer, you can also
        send a check to the contact address.</P>
        <HR>
    
        <P>Also, if you have a success story about PostgreSQL, please submit
        it to our advocacy site at <a href="http://advocacy.postgresql.org">
        http://advocacy.postgresql.org</a>.</P>
    
    
        <H2 align="center">User Client Questions</H2>
    
        <H4><A name="2.1">2.1</A>) Are there <SMALL>ODBC</SMALL> drivers
        for PostgreSQL?</H4>
    
        <P>There are two <SMALL>ODBC</SMALL> drivers available, PsqlODBC
        and OpenLink <SMALL>ODBC</SMALL>.</P>
    
        <P>You can download PsqlODBC from <A href=
        "http://gborg.postgresql.org/project/psqlodbc/projdisplay.php">
        http://gborg.postgresql.org/project/psqlodbc/projdisplay.php</A>.</P>
    
        <P>OpenLink <SMALL>ODBC</SMALL> can be gotten from <A href=
        "http://www.openlinksw.com/">http://www.openlinksw.com</A>. It
        works with their standard <SMALL>ODBC</SMALL> client software so
        you'll have PostgreSQL <SMALL>ODBC</SMALL> available on every
        client platform they support (Win, Mac, Unix, VMS).</P>
    
        <P>They will probably be selling this product to people who need
        commercial-quality support, but a freeware version will always be
        available. Please send questions to <A href=
        "mailto:postgres95@openlink.co.uk">postgres95@openlink.co.uk</A>.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="2.2">2.2</A>) What tools are available for using
        PostgreSQL with Web pages?</H4>
    
        <P>A nice introduction to Database-backed Web pages can be seen at:
        <A href="http://www.webreview.com">http://www.webreview.com</A></P>
    
        <P>For Web integration, PHP is an excellent interface. It is at <A
        href="http://www.php.net">http://www.php.net</A>.</P>
    
        <P>For complex cases, many use the Perl interface and CGI.pm or mod_perl.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="2.3">2.3</A>) Does PostgreSQL have a graphical user
        interface?</H4>
    
        <P>Yes, there are several graphical interfaces to PostgreSQL available.
        These include PgAccess <a href="http://www.pgaccess.org">
        http://www.pgaccess.org</a>), PgAdmin III (<a
        href="http://www.pgadmin.org">http://www.pgadmin.org</a>, RHDB Admin (<a
        href="http://sources.redhat.com/rhdb/">http://sources.redhat.com/rhdb/
        </a>) and Rekall (<a href="http://www.thekompany.com/products/rekall/">
        http://www.thekompany.com/products/rekall/</a>, proprietary). There is 
        also PhpPgAdmin (<a href="http://phppgadmin.sourceforge.net/">
        http://phppgadmin.sourceforge.net/ </a>), a web-based interface to 
        PostgreSQL.</P>
    
        <P>See <a href="http://techdocs.postgresql.org/guides/GUITools">http://techdocs.postgresql.org/guides/GUITools</a> for a more detailed list.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="2.4">2.4</A>) What languages are able to communicate with 
        PostgreSQL?</H4>
    
        <P>Most popular programming languages contain an interface to
        PostgreSQL. Check your programming language's list of extension
        modules.</P>
    
        <P>The following interfaces are included in the PostgreSQL
        distribution:</P>
    
        <UL>
          <LI>C (libpq)</LI>
    
          <LI>Embedded C (ecpg)</LI>
    
          <LI>Java (jdbc)</LI>
    
          <LI>Python (PyGreSQL)</LI>
    
          <LI>TCL (libpgtcl)</LI>
    
        </UL>
        <P>Additional interfaces are available at 
        <a href="http://gborg.postgresql.org">http://gborg.postgresql.org</A>
        in the <I>Drivers/Interfaces</I> section.
        </P>
        <HR>
    
        <H2 align="center">Administrative Questions</H2>
    
        <H4><A name="3.1">3.1</A>) How do I install PostgreSQL somewhere
        other than <I>/usr/local/pgsql</I>?</H4>
    
        <P>Specify the <I>--prefix</I> option when running
        <I>configure</I>.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="3.2">3.2</A>) When I start <I>postmaster</I>, I get a
        <I>Bad System Call</I> or core dumped message. Why?</H4>
    
        <P>It could be a variety of problems, but first check to see that
        you have System V extensions installed in your kernel. PostgreSQL
        requires kernel support for shared memory and semaphores.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="3.3">3.3</A>) When I try to start <I>postmaster</I>, I
        get <I>IpcMemoryCreate</I> errors. Why?</H4>
    
        <P>You either do not have shared memory configured properly in your
        kernel or you need to enlarge the shared memory available in the
        kernel. The exact amount you need depends on your architecture and
        how many buffers and backend processes you configure for
        <I>postmaster</I>. For most systems, with default numbers of
        buffers and processes, you need a minimum of ~1 MB. See the <A
        href=
        "http://www.PostgreSQL.org/docs/view.php?version=current&amp;idoc=1&amp;file=kernel-resources.html">PostgreSQL
        Administrator's Guide</A> for more detailed information about
        shared memory and semaphores.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="3.4">3.4</A>) When I try to start <I>postmaster</I>, I
        get <I>IpcSemaphoreCreate</I> errors. Why?</H4>
    
        <P>If the error message is <I>IpcSemaphoreCreate: semget failed (No
        space left on device)</I> then your kernel is not configured with
        enough semaphores. Postgres needs one semaphore per potential
        backend process. A temporary solution is to start <I>postmaster</I>
        with a smaller limit on the number of backend processes. Use
        <I>-N</I> with a parameter less than the default of 32. A more
        permanent solution is to increase your kernel's
        <SMALL>SEMMNS</SMALL> and <SMALL>SEMMNI</SMALL> parameters.</P>
    
        <P>Inoperative semaphores can also cause crashes during heavy
        database access.</P>
    
        <P>If the error message is something else, you might not have
        semaphore support configured in your kernel at all. See the
        PostgreSQL Administrator's Guide for more detailed information
        about shared memory and semaphores.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="3.5">3.5</A>) How do I control connections from other
        hosts?</H4>
    
        <P>By default, PostgreSQL only allows connections from the local
        machine using Unix domain sockets or TCP/IP connections. Other
        machines will not be able to connect unless you modify
        listen_addresses in the postgresql.conf <B>and</B> enable
        host-based authentication by modifying the file
        <I>$PGDATA/pg_hba.conf</I> accordingly.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="3.6">3.6</A>) How do I tune the database engine for
        better performance?</H4>
    
        <P>Certainly, indexes can speed up queries. The
        <SMALL>EXPLAIN ANALYZE</SMALL> command allows you to see how PostgreSQL is
        interpreting your query, and which indexes are being used.</P>
    
        <P>If you are doing many <SMALL>INSERTs</SMALL>, consider doing
        them in a large batch using the <SMALL>COPY</SMALL> command. This
        is much faster than individual <SMALL>INSERTS</SMALL>. Second,
        statements not in a <SMALL>BEGIN WORK/COMMIT</SMALL> transaction
        block are considered to be in their own transaction. Consider
        performing several statements in a single transaction block. This
        reduces the transaction overhead. Also, consider dropping and
        recreating indexes when making large data changes.</P>
    
        <P>There are several tuning options. You can disable <I>fsync()</I>
        by starting <I>postmaster</I> with a <I>-o -F</I> option. This will
        prevent <I>fsync()</I>s from flushing to disk after every
        transaction.</P>
    
        <P>You can also use the <I>postmaster</I> <I>-B</I> option to
        increase the number of shared memory buffers used by the backend
        processes. If you make this parameter too high, the
        <I>postmaster</I> may not start because you have exceeded your
        kernel's limit on shared memory space. Each buffer is 8K and the
        default is 64 buffers.</P>
    
        <P>You can also use the backend <I>-S</I> option to increase the
        maximum amount of memory used by the backend process for temporary
        sorts. The <I>-S</I> value is measured in kilobytes, and the
        default is 512 (i.e. 512K).</P>
    
        <P>You can also use the <SMALL>CLUSTER</SMALL> command to group
        data in tables to match an index. See the <SMALL>CLUSTER</SMALL>
        manual page for more details.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="3.7">3.7</A>) What debugging features are
        available?</H4>
    
        <P>PostgreSQL has several features that report status information
        that can be valuable for debugging purposes.</P>
    
        <P>First, by running <I>configure</I> with the --enable-cassert
        option, many <I>assert()</I>s monitor the progress of the backend
        and halt the program when something unexpected occurs.</P>
    
        <P>Both <I>postmaster</I> and <I>postgres</I> have several debug
        options available. First, whenever you start <I>postmaster</I>,
        make sure you send the standard output and error to a log file,
        like:</P>
    <PRE>
        cd /usr/local/pgsql
        ./bin/postmaster &gt;server.log 2&gt;&amp;1 &amp;
    </PRE>
    
        <P>This will put a server.log file in the top-level PostgreSQL
        directory. This file contains useful information about problems or
        errors encountered by the server. <I>Postmaster</I> has a <I>-d</I>
        option that allows even more detailed information to be reported.
        The <I>-d</I> option takes a number that specifies the debug level.
        Be warned that high debug level values generate large log
        files.</P>
    
        <P>If <I>postmaster</I> is not running, you can actually run the
        <I>postgres</I> backend from the command line, and type your
        <SMALL>SQL</SMALL> statement directly. This is recommended
        <B>only</B> for debugging purposes. Note that a newline terminates
        the query, not a semicolon. If you have compiled with debugging
        symbols, you can use a debugger to see what is happening. Because
        the backend was not started from <I>postmaster</I>, it is not
        running in an identical environment and locking/backend interaction
        problems may not be duplicated.</P>
    
        <P>If <I>postmaster</I> is running, start <I>psql</I> in one
        window, then find the <SMALL>PID</SMALL> of the <I>postgres</I>
        process used by <I>psql</I>. Use a debugger to attach to the
        <I>postgres</I> <SMALL>PID</SMALL>. You can set breakpoints in the
        debugger and issue queries from <I>psql</I>. If you are debugging
        <I>postgres</I> startup, you can set PGOPTIONS="-W n", then start
        <I>psql</I>. This will cause startup to delay for <I>n</I> seconds
        so you can attach to the process with the debugger, set any
        breakpoints, and continue through the startup sequence.</P>
    
        <P>The <I>postgres</I> program has <I>-s, -A</I>, and <I>-t</I>
        options that can be very useful for debugging and performance
        measurements.</P>
    
        <P>You can also compile with profiling to see what functions are
        taking execution time. The backend profile files will be deposited
        in the <I>pgsql/data/base/dbname</I> directory. The client profile
        file will be put in the client's current directory. Linux requires
        a compile with <I>-DLINUX_PROFILE</I> for proper profiling.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="3.8">3.8</A>) Why do I get <I>"Sorry, too many
        clients"</I> when trying to connect?</H4>
    
        <P>You need to increase <I>postmaster</I>'s limit on how many
        concurrent backend processes it can start.</P>
    
        <P>The default limit is 32 processes. You can increase it by
        restarting <I>postmaster</I> with a suitable <I>-N</I> value or
        modifying <I>postgresql.conf</I>.</P>
    
        <P>Note that if you make <I>-N</I> larger than 32, you must also
        increase <I>-B</I> beyond its default of 64; <I>-B</I> must be at
        least twice <I>-N</I>, and probably should be more than that for
        best performance. For large numbers of backend processes, you are
        also likely to find that you need to increase various Unix kernel
        configuration parameters. Things to check include the maximum size
        of shared memory blocks, <SMALL>SHMMAX;</SMALL> the maximum number
        of semaphores, <SMALL>SEMMNS</SMALL> and <SMALL>SEMMNI;</SMALL> the
        maximum number of processes, <SMALL>NPROC;</SMALL> the maximum
        number of processes per user, <SMALL>MAXUPRC;</SMALL> and the
        maximum number of open files, <SMALL>NFILE</SMALL> and
        <SMALL>NINODE</SMALL>. The reason that PostgreSQL has a limit on
        the number of allowed backend processes is so your system won't run
        out of resources.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="3.9">3.9</A>) What is in the <I>pgsql_tmp</I> directory?</H4>
    
        <P>This directory contains temporary files generated by the query 
        executor. For example, if a sort needs to be done to satisfy an 
        <SMALL>ORDER BY</SMALL> and the sort requires more space than the
        backend's <I>-S</I> parameter allows, then temporary files are created
        here to hold the extra data.</P>
    
        <P>The temporary files are usually deleted automatically, but might
        remain if a backend crashes during a sort. A stop and restart of the
        <I>postmaster</I> will remove files from those directories.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="3.10">3.10</A>) Why do I need to do a dump and restore
        to upgrade between major PostgreSQL releases?</H4>
    
        <P>The PostgreSQL team makes only small changes between minor releases,
        so upgrading from 7.2 to 7.2.1 does not require a dump and restore.
        However, major releases (e.g. from 7.2 to 7.3) often change the internal
        format of system tables and data files. These changes are often complex,
        so we don't maintain backward compatability for data files. A dump outputs
        data in a generic format that can then be loaded in using the new internal
        format.</P>
    
        <P>In releases where the on-disk format does not change, the
        <I>pg_upgrade</I> script can be used to upgrade without a dump/restore.
        The release notes mention whether <I>pg_upgrade</I> is available for the
        release.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="3.11">3.11</A>) What computer hardware should I use?</H4>
    
        <P>Because PC hardware is mostly compatible, people tend to believe that
        all PC hardware is of equal quality.  It is not.  ECC RAM, SCSI, and
        quality motherboards are more reliable and have better performance than
        less expensive hardware.  PostgreSQL will run on almost any hardware,
        but if reliability and performance are important it is wise to
        research your hardware options thoroughly.  Our email lists can be used
        to discuss hardware options and tradeoffs.</P>
    
        <HR>
    
        <H2 align="center">Operational Questions</H2>
    
        <H4><A name="4.1">4.1</A>) What is the difference between binary
        cursors and normal cursors?</H4>
    
        <P>See the <SMALL>DECLARE</SMALL> manual page for a
        description.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.2">4.2</A>) How do I <SMALL>SELECT</SMALL> only the
        first few rows of a query?  A random row?</H4>
    
        <P>See the <SMALL>FETCH</SMALL> manual page, or use
        <SMALL>SELECT</SMALL> ... <SMALL>LIMIT</SMALL>....</P>
    
        <P>The entire query may have to be evaluated, even if you only want
        the first few rows. Consider using a query that has an <SMALL>ORDER
        BY</SMALL>. If there is an index that matches the <SMALL>ORDER
        BY</SMALL>, PostgreSQL may be able to evaluate only the first few
        records requested, or the entire query may have to be evaluated
        until the desired rows have been generated.</P>
    
        <P>To <SMALL>SELECT</SMALL> a random row, use:
    <PRE>
        SELECT col
        FROM tab
        ORDER BY random()
        LIMIT 1;
    </PRE>
    
        <H4><A name="4.3">4.3</A>) How do I get a list of tables or other
        things I can see in <I>psql</I>?</H4>
    
        <P>Use the \dt command to see tables in <I>psql</I>. For a complete list of
        commands inside psql you can use \?. Alternatively you can read the source 
        code for <I>psql</I> in file <I>pgsql/src/bin/psql/describe.c</I>, it 
        contains <SMALL>SQL</SMALL> commands that generate the output for 
        <I>psql</I>'s backslash commands. You can also start <I>psql</I> with the
        <I>-E</I> option so it will print out the queries it uses to execute the 
        commands you give. PostgreSQL also provides an <SMALL>SQLi</SMALL> compliant
        INFORMATION SCHEMA interface you can query to get information about the
        database.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.4">4.4</A>) How do you remove a column from a
        table, or change its data type?</H4>
    
        <P><SMALL>DROP COLUMN</SMALL> functionality was added in release 7.3 with
        <SMALL>ALTER TABLE DROP COLUMN</SMALL>.  In earlier versions,
        you can do this:</P>
    <PRE>
        BEGIN;
        LOCK TABLE old_table;
        SELECT ...  -- select all columns but the one you want to remove
        INTO TABLE new_table
        FROM old_table;
        DROP TABLE old_table;
        ALTER TABLE new_table RENAME TO old_table;
        COMMIT;
    </PRE>
    
        <P>To change the data type of a column, do this:</P>
    <PRE>
        BEGIN;
        ALTER TABLE tab ADD COLUMN new_col <i>new_data_type</i>;
        UPDATE tab SET new_col = CAST(old_col AS <i>new_data_type</i>);
        ALTER TABLE tab DROP COLUMN old_col;
        COMMIT;
    </PRE>
        <P>You might then want to do <I>VACUUM FULL tab</I> to reclaim the
        disk space used by the expired rows.</P>
        
        <H4><A name="4.5">4.5</A>) What is the maximum size for a row, a
        table, and a database?</H4>
    
        <P>These are the limits:</P>
    <PRE>
        Maximum size for a database?             unlimited (32 TB databases exist)
        Maximum size for a table?                32 TB
        Maximum size for a row?                  1.6TB
        Maximum size for a field?                1 GB
        Maximum number of rows in a table?       unlimited
        Maximum number of columns in a table?    250-1600 depending on column types
        Maximum number of indexes on a table?    unlimited
    </PRE>
    
        Of course, these are not actually unlimited, but limited to
        available disk space and memory/swap space. Performance may suffer
        when these values get unusually large. 
    
        <P>The maximum table size of 32 TB does not require large file
        support from the operating system. Large tables are stored as
        multiple 1 GB files so file system size limits are not
        important.</P>
    
        <P>The maximum table size and maximum number of columns can be
        quadrupled by increasing the default block size to 32k.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.6">4.6</A>) How much database disk space is required
        to store data from a typical text file?</H4>
    
        <P>A PostgreSQL database may require up to five times the disk
        space to store data from a text file.</P>
    
        <P>As an example, consider a file of 100,000 lines with an integer
        and text description on each line. Suppose the text string
        avergages twenty bytes in length. The flat file would be 2.8 MB.
        The size of the PostgreSQL database file containing this data can
        be estimated as 6.4 MB:</P>
    <PRE>
        32 bytes: each row header (approximate)
        24 bytes: one int field and one text field
       + 4 bytes: pointer on page to tuple
       ----------------------------------------
        60 bytes per row
    
       The data page size in PostgreSQL is 8192 bytes (8 KB), so:
    
       8192 bytes per page
       -------------------   =  136 rows per database page (rounded down)
         60 bytes per row
    
       100000 data rows
       --------------------  =  735 database pages (rounded up)
          128 rows per page
    
    735 database pages * 8192 bytes per page  =  6,021,120 bytes (6 MB)
    </PRE>
    
        <P>Indexes do not require as much overhead, but do contain the data
        that is being indexed, so they can be large also.</P>
    
        <P><SMALL>NULL</SMALL>s are stored as bitmaps, so they
        use very little space.</P>
        
        <H4><A name="4.7">4.7</A>) How do I find out what tables, indexes,
        databases, and users are defined?</H4>
    
        <P><I>psql</I> has a variety of backslash commands to show such
        information. Use \? to see them. There are also system tables
        beginning with <I>pg_</I> that describe these too. Also, <I>psql
        -l</I> will list all databases.</P>
    
        <P>Also try the file <I>pgsql/src/tutorial/syscat.source</I>. It
        illustrates many of the <SMALL>SELECT</SMALL>s needed to get
        information from the database system tables.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.8">4.8</A>) My queries are slow or don't make use of
        the indexes. Why?</H4>
        Indexes are not automatically used by every query. Indexes are only
        used if the table is larger than a minimum size, and the query
        selects only a small percentage of the rows in the table. This is
        because the random disk access caused by an index scan can be
        slower than a straight read through the table, or sequential scan. 
    
        <P>To determine if an index should be used, PostgreSQL must have
        statistics about the table. These statistics are collected using
        <SMALL>VACUUM ANALYZE</SMALL>, or simply <SMALL>ANALYZE</SMALL>.
        Using statistics, the optimizer knows how many rows are in the
        table, and can better determine if indexes should be used.
        Statistics are also valuable in determining optimal join order and
        join methods. Statistics collection should be performed
        periodically as the contents of the table change.</P>
    
        <P>Indexes are normally not used for <SMALL>ORDER BY</SMALL> or to
        perform joins. A sequential scan followed by an explicit sort is
        usually faster than an index scan of a large table.</P>
        However, <SMALL>LIMIT</SMALL> combined with <SMALL>ORDER BY</SMALL>
        often will use an index because only a small portion of the table
        is returned.  In fact, though MAX() and MIN() don't use indexes,
        it is possible to retrieve such values using an index with ORDER BY
        and LIMIT:
    <PRE>
        SELECT col
        FROM tab
        ORDER BY col [ DESC ]
        LIMIT 1;
    </PRE>
    
        <P>If you believe the optimizer is incorrect in choosing a
        sequential scan, use <CODE>SET enable_seqscan TO 'off'</CODE> and
        run tests to see if an index scan is indeed faster.</P>
    
        <P>When using wild-card operators such as <SMALL>LIKE</SMALL> or
        <I>~</I>, indexes can only be used in certain circumstances:</P>
        <UL>
        <LI>The beginning of the search string must be anchored to the start
        of the string, i.e.
        <UL>
        <LI><SMALL>LIKE</SMALL> patterns must not start with <I>%</I>.</LI>
        <LI><I>~</I> (regular expression) patterns must start with
        <I>^</I>.</LI>
        </UL></LI>
        <LI>The search string can not start with a character class,
        e.g. [a-e].</LI>
        <LI>Case-insensitive searches such as <SMALL>ILIKE</SMALL> and
        <I>~*</I> do not utilise indexes. Instead, use functional
        indexes, which are described in section <a href="#4.12">4.12</a>.</LI>
        <LI>The default <I>C</I> locale must be used during
        <i>initdb</i>.</LI>
        </UL>
        <P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.9">4.9</A>) How do I see how the query optimizer is
        evaluating my query?</H4>
    
        <P>See the <SMALL>EXPLAIN</SMALL> manual page.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.10">4.10</A>) What is an R-tree index?</H4>
    
        <P>An R-tree index is used for indexing spatial data. A hash index
        can't handle range searches. A B-tree index only handles range
        searches in a single dimension. R-trees can handle
        multi-dimensional data. For example, if an R-tree index can be
        built on an attribute of type <I>point</I>, the system can more
        efficiently answer queries such as "select all points within a
        bounding rectangle."</P>
    
        <P>The canonical paper that describes the original R-tree design
        is:</P>
    
        <P>Guttman, A. "R-trees: A Dynamic Index Structure for Spatial
        Searching." Proceedings of the 1984 ACM SIGMOD Int'l Conf on Mgmt
        of Data, 45-57.</P>
    
        <P>You can also find this paper in Stonebraker's "Readings in
        Database Systems".</P>
    
        <P>Built-in R-trees can handle polygons and boxes. In theory,
        R-trees can be extended to handle higher number of dimensions. In
        practice, extending R-trees requires a bit of work and we don't
        currently have any documentation on how to do it.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.11">4.11</A>) What is the Genetic Query
        Optimizer?</H4>
    
        <P>The <SMALL>GEQO</SMALL> module speeds query optimization when
        joining many tables by means of a Genetic Algorithm (GA). It allows
        the handling of large join queries through nonexhaustive
        search.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.12">4.12</A>) How do I perform regular expression
        searches and case-insensitive regular expression searches? How do I
        use an index for case-insensitive searches?</H4>
    
        <P>The <I>~</I> operator does regular expression matching, and
        <I>~*</I> does case-insensitive regular expression matching. The
        case-insensitive variant of <SMALL>LIKE</SMALL> is called
        <SMALL>ILIKE</SMALL>.</P>
    
        <P>Case-insensitive equality comparisons are normally expressed
        as:</P>
    <PRE>
        SELECT *
        FROM tab
        WHERE lower(col) = 'abc';
    </PRE>
    
        This will not use an standard index. However, if you create a
        functional index, it will be used: 
    <PRE>
        CREATE INDEX tabindex ON tab (lower(col));
    </PRE>
    
        <H4><A name="4.13">4.13</A>) In a query, how do I detect if a field
        is <SMALL>NULL</SMALL>?</H4>
    
        <P>You test the column with <SMALL>IS NULL</SMALL> and <SMALL>IS
        NOT NULL</SMALL>.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.14">4.14</A>) What is the difference between the
        various character types?</H4>
    <PRE>
    Type            Internal Name   Notes
    --------------------------------------------------
    VARCHAR(n)      varchar         size specifies maximum length, no padding
    CHAR(n)         bpchar          blank padded to the specified fixed length
    TEXT            text            no specific upper limit on length
    BYTEA           bytea           variable-length byte array (null-byte safe)
    "char"          char            one character
    </PRE>
    
        <P>You will see the internal name when examining system catalogs
        and in some error messages.</P>
    
        <P>The first four types above are "varlena" types (i.e., the first
        four bytes on disk are the length, followed by the data). Thus the
        actual space used is slightly greater than the declared size.
        However, these data types are also subject to compression or being
        stored out-of-line by <SMALL>TOAST</SMALL>, so the space on disk
        might also be less than expected.</P>
    
        <SMALL>VARCHAR(n)</SMALL> is best when storing variable-length
        strings and it limits how long a string can be. <SMALL>TEXT</SMALL>
        is for strings of unlimited length, with a maximum of one gigabyte.
        <P><SMALL>CHAR(n)</SMALL> is for storing strings that are all the
        same length. <SMALL>CHAR(n)</SMALL> pads with blanks to the specified
        length, while <SMALL>VARCHAR(n)</SMALL> only stores the characters
        supplied.  <SMALL>BYTEA</SMALL> is for storing binary data,
        particularly values that include <SMALL>NULL</SMALL> bytes. All the
        types described here have similar performance characteristics.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.15.1">4.15.1</A>) How do I create a
        serial/auto-incrementing field?</H4>
    
        <P>PostgreSQL supports a <SMALL>SERIAL</SMALL> data type. It
        auto-creates a sequence.  For example,
        this:</P>
    <PRE>
        CREATE TABLE person ( 
            id   SERIAL, 
            name TEXT 
        );
    </PRE>
    
        is automatically translated into this: 
    <PRE>
        CREATE SEQUENCE person_id_seq;
        CREATE TABLE person ( 
            id   INT4 NOT NULL DEFAULT nextval('person_id_seq'),
            name TEXT 
        );
    </PRE>
    
        See the <I>create_sequence</I> manual page for more information
        about sequences. You can also use each row's <I>OID</I> field as a
        unique value. However, if you need to dump and reload the database,
        you need to use <I>pg_dump</I>'s <I>-o</I> option or <SMALL>COPY
        WITH OIDS</SMALL> option to preserve the <SMALL>OID</SMALL>s. 
    
        <H4><A name="4.15.2">4.15.2</A>) How do I get the value of a
        <SMALL>SERIAL</SMALL> insert?</H4>
    
        <P>One approach is to retrieve the next <SMALL>SERIAL</SMALL> value
        from the sequence object with the <I>nextval()</I> function
        <I>before</I> inserting and then insert it explicitly. Using the
        example table in <A href="#4.15.1">4.15.1</A>, an example in a
        pseudo-language would look like this:</P>
    <PRE>
        new_id = execute("SELECT nextval('person_id_seq')");
        execute("INSERT INTO person (id, name) VALUES (new_id, 'Blaise Pascal')");
    </PRE>
    
        You would then also have the new value stored in
        <CODE>new_id</CODE> for use in other queries (e.g., as a foreign
        key to the <CODE>person</CODE> table). Note that the name of the
        automatically created <SMALL>SEQUENCE</SMALL> object will be named
        &lt;<I>table</I>&gt;_&lt;<I>serialcolumn</I>&gt;_<I>seq</I>, where
        <I>table</I> and <I>serialcolumn</I> are the names of your table
        and your <SMALL>SERIAL</SMALL> column, respectively.
    
        <P>Alternatively, you could retrieve the assigned
        <SMALL>SERIAL</SMALL> value with the <I>currval()</I> function
        <I>after</I> it was inserted by default, e.g.,</P>
    <PRE>
        execute("INSERT INTO person (name) VALUES ('Blaise Pascal')");
        new_id = execute("SELECT currval('person_id_seq')");
    </PRE>
    
        Finally, you could use the <A href="#4.16"><SMALL>OID</SMALL></A>
        returned from the <SMALL>INSERT</SMALL> statement to look up the
        default value, though this is probably the least portable approach,
        and the oid value will wrap around when it reaches 4 billion.
        In Perl, using DBI with Edmund Mergl's DBD::Pg module, the oid
        value is made available via <I>$sth-&gt;{pg_oid_status}</I> after
        <I>$sth-&gt;execute()</I>.
    
        <H4><A name="4.15.3">4.15.3</A>) Don't <I>currval()</I> and
        <I>nextval()</I> lead to a race condition with other users?</H4>
    
        <P>No. <I>currval()</I> returns the current value assigned by your
        backend, not by all users.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.15.4">4.15.4</A>) Why aren't my sequence numbers
        reused on transaction abort? Why are there gaps in the numbering of
        my sequence/SERIAL column?</H4>
    
        <P>To improve concurrency, sequence values are given out to running
        transactions as needed and are not locked until the transaction
        completes. This causes gaps in numbering from aborted
        transactions.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.16">4.16</A>) What is an <SMALL>OID</SMALL>? What is
        a <SMALL>TID</SMALL>?</H4>
    
        <P><SMALL>OID</SMALL>s are PostgreSQL's answer to unique row ids.
        Every row that is created in PostgreSQL gets a unique
        <SMALL>OID</SMALL>. All <SMALL>OID</SMALL>s generated during
        <I>initdb</I> are less than 16384 (from
        <I>include/access/transam.h</I>). All user-created
        <SMALL>OID</SMALL>s are equal to or greater than this. By default,
        all these <SMALL>OID</SMALL>s are unique not only within a table or
        database, but unique within the entire PostgreSQL installation.</P>
    
        <P>PostgreSQL uses <SMALL>OID</SMALL>s in its internal system
        tables to link rows between tables. These <SMALL>OID</SMALL>s can
        be used to identify specific user rows and used in joins. It is
        recommended you use column type <SMALL>OID</SMALL> to store
        <SMALL>OID</SMALL> values. You can create an index on the
        <SMALL>OID</SMALL> field for faster access.</P>
    
        <P>O<SMALL>ID</SMALL>s are assigned to all new rows from a central
        area that is used by all databases. If you want to change the
        <SMALL>OID</SMALL> to something else, or if you want to make a copy
        of the table, with the original <SMALL>OID</SMALL>s, there is no
        reason you can't do it:</P>
    <PRE>
            CREATE TABLE new_table(mycol int);
            SELECT oid AS old_oid, mycol INTO tmp_table FROM old_table;
            COPY tmp_table TO '/tmp/pgtable';
            COPY new_table WITH OIDS FROM '/tmp/pgtable';
            DROP TABLE tmp_table;
    </PRE>
        <P>O<SMALL>ID</SMALL>s are stored as 4-byte integers, and will
        overflow at 4 billion. No one has reported this ever happening, and
        we plan to have the limit removed before anyone does.</P>
    
        <P>T<SMALL>ID</SMALL>s are used to identify specific physical rows
        with block and offset values. T<SMALL>ID</SMALL>s change after rows
        are modified or reloaded. They are used by index entries to point
        to physical rows.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.17">4.17</A>) What is the meaning of some of the
        terms used in PostgreSQL?</H4>
    
        <P>Some of the source code and older documentation use terms that
        have more common usage. Here are some:</P>
    
        <UL>
          <LI>table, relation, class</LI>
    
          <LI>row, record, tuple</LI>
    
          <LI>column, field, attribute</LI>
    
          <LI>retrieve, select</LI>
    
          <LI>replace, update</LI>
    
          <LI>append, insert</LI>
    
          <LI><SMALL>OID</SMALL>, serial value</LI>
    
          <LI>portal, cursor</LI>
    
          <LI>range variable, table name, table alias</LI>
        </UL>
    
        <P>A list of general database terms can be found at: <A href=
        "http://hea-www.harvard.edu/MST/simul/software/docs/pkgs/pgsql/glossary/glossary.html">http://hea-www.harvard.edu/MST/simul/software/docs/pkgs/pgsql/glossary/glossary.html</A></P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.18">4.18</A>) Why do I get the error <I>"ERROR:
        Memory exhausted in AllocSetAlloc()"</I>?</H4>
    
        <P>You probably have run out of virtual memory on your system,
        or your kernel has a low limit for certain resources. Try this
        before starting <I>postmaster</I>:</P>
    <PRE>
        ulimit -d 262144
        limit datasize 256m
    </PRE>
    
        Depending on your shell, only one of these may succeed, but it will
        set your process data segment limit much higher and perhaps allow
        the query to complete. This command applies to the current process,
        and all subprocesses created after the command is run. If you are
        having a problem with the <SMALL>SQL</SMALL> client because the
        backend is returning too much data, try it before starting the
        client.
    
        <H4><A name="4.19">4.19</A>) How do I tell what PostgreSQL version
        I am running?</H4>
    
        <P>From <I>psql</I>, type <CODE>SELECT version();</CODE></P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.20">4.20</A>) Why does my large-object operations
        get <I>"invalid large obj descriptor"</I>?</H4>
    
        <P>You need to put <CODE>BEGIN WORK</CODE> and <CODE>COMMIT</CODE>
        around any use of a large object handle, that is, surrounding
        <CODE>lo_open</CODE> ... <CODE>lo_close.</CODE></P>
    
        <P>Currently PostgreSQL enforces the rule by closing large object
        handles at transaction commit. So the first attempt to do anything
        with the handle will draw <I>invalid large obj descriptor</I>. So
        code that used to work (at least most of the time) will now
        generate that error message if you fail to use a transaction.</P>
    
        <P>If you are using a client interface like <SMALL>ODBC</SMALL> you
        may need to set <CODE>auto-commit off.</CODE></P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.21">4.21</A>) How do I create a column that will
        default to the current time?</H4>
    
        <P>Use <I>CURRENT_TIMESTAMP</I>:</P>
    <PRE>
    <CODE>CREATE TABLE test (x int, modtime timestamp DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP );
    </CODE>
    </PRE>
    
        <H4><A name="4.22">4.22</A>) Why are my subqueries using
        <CODE><SMALL>IN</SMALL></CODE> so slow?</H4>
    
        <P>In versions prior to 7.4, subqueries were joined to outer queries
        by sequentially scanning the result of the subquery for each row of
        the outer query. If the subquery returns only a few rows and the outer
        query returns many rows, <CODE><SMALL>IN</SMALL></CODE> is fastest.  To
        speed up other queries, replace <CODE>IN</CODE> with
        <CODE>EXISTS</CODE>:</P>
    <PRE>    SELECT *
        FROM tab
        WHERE col IN (SELECT subcol FROM subtab);
    </PRE>
        to:
    <PRE>    SELECT *
        FROM tab
        WHERE EXISTS (SELECT subcol FROM subtab WHERE subcol = col);
    </PRE>
    
        For this to be fast, <CODE>subcol</CODE> should be an indexed column.
        <P>In version 7.4 and later,  <CODE>IN</CODE> actually uses the same
        sophisticated join techniques as normal queries, and is prefered
        to using <CODE>EXISTS</CODE>.
    
        <H4><A name="4.23">4.23</A>) How do I perform an outer join?</H4>
    
        <P>PostgreSQL supports outer joins using the SQL standard syntax.
        Here are two examples:</P>
    <PRE>
        SELECT *
        FROM t1 LEFT OUTER JOIN t2 ON (t1.col = t2.col);
    </PRE>
        or 
    <PRE>
        SELECT *
        FROM t1 LEFT OUTER JOIN t2 USING (col);
    </PRE>
    
        <P>These identical queries join t1.col to t2.col, and also return
        any unjoined rows in t1 (those with no match in t2). A
        <SMALL>RIGHT</SMALL> join would add unjoined rows of t2. A
        <SMALL>FULL</SMALL> join would return the matched rows plus all
        unjoined rows from t1 and t2. The word <SMALL>OUTER</SMALL> is
        optional and is assumed in <SMALL>LEFT</SMALL>,
        <SMALL>RIGHT</SMALL>, and <SMALL>FULL</SMALL> joins. Ordinary joins
        are called <SMALL>INNER</SMALL> joins.</P>
    
        <P>In previous releases, outer joins can be simulated using
        <SMALL>UNION</SMALL> and <SMALL>NOT IN</SMALL>. For example, when
        joining <I>tab1</I> and <I>tab2</I>, the following query does an
        <I>outer</I> join of the two tables:<BR>
        <BR>
        </P>
    <PRE>
        SELECT tab1.col1, tab2.col2
        FROM tab1, tab2
        WHERE tab1.col1 = tab2.col1
        UNION ALL
        SELECT tab1.col1, NULL
        FROM tab1
        WHERE tab1.col1 NOT IN (SELECT tab2.col1 FROM tab2)
        ORDER BY col1
    </PRE>
    
        <H4><A name="4.24">4.24</A>) How do I perform queries using
        multiple databases?</H4>
    
        <P>There is no way to query a database other than the current one.
        Because PostgreSQL loads database-specific system catalogs, it is
        uncertain how a cross-database query should even behave.</P>
    
        <P><I>contrib/dblink</I> allows cross-database queries using
        function calls. Of course, a client can make simultaneous
        connections to different databases and merge the results on the
        client side.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.25">4.25</A>) How do I return multiple rows or
        columns from a function?</H4>
    
        <P>In 7.3, you can easily return multiple rows or columns from a
        function,
        <a href="http://techdocs.postgresql.org/guides/SetReturningFunctions">
        http://techdocs.postgresql.org/guides/SetReturningFunctions</a>.
    
        <H4><A name="4.26">4.26</A>) Why can't I reliably create/drop
        temporary tables in PL/PgSQL functions?</H4>
        <P>PL/PgSQL caches function contents, and an unfortunate side effect
        is that if a PL/PgSQL function accesses a temporary table, and that
        table is later dropped and recreated, and the function called
        again, the function will fail because the cached function contents
        still point to the old temporary table. The solution is to use
        <SMALL>EXECUTE</SMALL> for temporary table access in PL/PgSQL. This
        will cause the query to be reparsed every time.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.27">4.27</A>) What replication options are available?
        </H4>
        <P>There are several master/slave replication options available.
        These allow only the master to make database changes and the slave
        can only do database reads. The bottom of <a
        href="http://gborg.PostgreSQL.org/genpage?replication_research">
        http://gborg.PostgreSQL.org/genpage?replication_research</a> lists
        them. A multi-master replication solution is being worked on at <a
        href="http://gborg.PostgreSQL.org/project/pgreplication/projdisplay.php">http://gborg.PostgreSQL.org/project/pgreplication/projdisplay.php</a>.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="4.28">4.28</A>) What encryption options are available?
        </H4>
        <UL>
        <LI><I>contrib/pgcrypto</I> contains many encryption functions for
        use in <SMALL>SQL</SMALL> queries.</LI>
        <LI>To encrypt transmission from the client to the server, the server
        must have the <I>ssl</I> option set to <I>true</I> in <I>postgresql.conf,
        </I> and an applicable <I>host</I> or <I>hostssl</I> record must exist in
        <I>pg_hba.conf</I>, and the client <I>sslmode</I> must not be
        <I>disable.</I> (Note that it is also possible to use a third-party
        encrypted transport, such as stunnel or ssh, rather than PostgreSQL's
        native SSL connections.)
        <LI>Database user passwords are automatically encrypted when stored in
        version 7.3. In previous versions, you must enable the option
        <I>PASSWORD_ENCRYPTION</I> in <I>postgresql.conf</I>.</LI>
        <LI>The server can run using an encrypted file system.</LI>
        </UL>
    
        <HR>
    
        <H2 align="center">Extending PostgreSQL</H2>
    
        <H4><A name="5.1">5.1</A>) I wrote a user-defined function. When I
        run it in <I>psql</I>, why does it dump core?</H4>
    
        <P>The problem could be a number of things. Try testing your
        user-defined function in a stand-alone test program first.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="5.2">5.2</A>) How can I contribute some nifty new
        types and functions to PostgreSQL?</H4>
    
        <P>Send your extensions to the <I>pgsql-hackers</I> mailing list,
        and they will eventually end up in the <I>contrib/</I>
        subdirectory.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="5.3">5.3</A>) How do I write a C function to return a
        tuple?</H4>
    
        <P>In versions of PostgreSQL beginning with 7.3, table-returning
        functions are fully supported in C, PL/PgSQL, and SQL. See the
        Programmer's Guide for more information. An example of a
        table-returning function defined in C can be found in
        <I>contrib/tablefunc</I>.</P>
    
        <H4><A name="5.4">5.4</A>) I have changed a source file. Why does
        the recompile not see the change?</H4>
    
        <P>The <I>Makefiles</I> do not have the proper dependencies for
        include files. You have to do a <I>make clean</I> and then another
        <I>make</I>. If you are using <SMALL>GCC</SMALL> you can use the
        <I>--enable-depend</I> option of <I>configure</I> to have the
        compiler compute the dependencies automatically.</P>
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