"Joshua D. Drake" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >> Hm. What is the data like --- in particular, are the topic_ids unique >> in the data processed by the sort? >> > Yes topic_ids are the primary key. Here is the nuke_bbtopics structure:
Hmmm ... because p.post_id has only a single value allowed by the WHERE clause, and that in turn determines single t and f rows, the SORT step is actually seeing thousands of rows that have all the *same* sort key. Ditto for the grouping step. I can't offhand see any change between 7.3 and 7.4 that would make 7.4 much worse on this corner case. Maybe the problem is in the glibc qsort() routine? It would be good to try the case in 7.3 and 7.4 on identical platforms. I have 7.3 and 7.4 built here on FC3, so if you don't, you could send me the data off-list. I'd just need the info going into the sort, ie create table foo as select p.post_id, t.topic_id, t.topic_title, t.topic_status, t.topic_replies, t.topic_time, t.topic_type, t.topic_vote, t.topic_last_post_id, f.forum_name, f.forum_status, f.forum_id, f.auth_view, f.auth_read, f.auth_post, f.auth_reply, f.auth_edit, f.auth_delete, f.auth_sticky, f.auth_announce, f.auth_pollcreate, f.auth_vote, f.auth_attachments FROM nuke_bbtopics t, nuke_bbforums f, nuke_bbposts p, nuke_bbposts p2 WHERE p.post_id = 352888 AND t.topic_id = p.topic_id AND p2.topic_id = p.topic_id AND p2.post_id <= 352888 AND f.forum_id = t.forum_id; and send a pg_dump of foo. regards, tom lane ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 7: don't forget to increase your free space map settings