> > Nor could it ever be a win unless the cache was populated via > > O_DIRECT, actually. Big PG cache == 2 extra copies of data, once > > in the kernel and once in PG. Doing caching at the kernel level, > > however means only one copy of data (for the most part). Only > > problem with this being that it's not always that easy or an > > option to reconfig a kernel to have a bigger FS cache. That said, > > tripple copying a chunk of mem is generally faster than even a > > single disk read. If PostgreSQL ever wanted to have a platform > > agnostic way of doing efficient caching, it'd likely have to be in > > the userland and would require the use of O_DIRECT. > > Actually, I think of O_DIRECT as platform-dependent.
FreeBSD, IRIX, and AIX, implement it, and ... *smiles with pride* looks like Linux does too given the number of security vulnerabilities associated with the call. :-] -sc -- Sean Chittenden ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: Have you checked our extensive FAQ? http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs/FAQ.html