kevinrkeith@xxxxxxxxxxx ("Kevin Keith") writes: > I am coming from an Oracle background - which in the case of bulk data > loads there were several options I had where I could disable writing > to the redo log to speed up the bulk data load (i.e. direct load, set > the user session in no archive logging, set the affected tables to > have no logging). > > I know the COPY command is one option - however it appears the data > would need to be in formatted file in order to use it correct? I want > to avoid writing a new file out for the COPY command and loading that. The options get a bit better in 8.1, as the COPY command supports some more format options. But you'll DEFINITELY get a big boost if you can format things so COPY can work for you. > What other options does Postgres 7.4 provide which would allow data > loads to bypass writing to the WAL? I don't need to have this enabled > - because in the event of a database crash, I would simply reload the > data from the source files as recovery. Arguably you could turn "fsync = off" in postgresql.conf; there is regrettably the increased risk that a crash would trash the ENTIRE database, not just the recently-loaded data. It's somewhat regrettable that you can't turn off logging just for a single transaction's context; that would probably be the ideal for this... -- output = ("cbbrowne" "@" "cbbrowne.com") http://cbbrowne.com/info/spreadsheets.html "If roach hotels worked on pointy haired people, Microsoft would die." -- Pete Koren