Re: Heap page diagnostic/test functions (WIP)

"Simon Riggs" <simon@2ndquadrant.com> writes:
> On Mon, 2007-03-05 at 14:31 -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
>> Exactly what will these allow that you can't do with inspection of ctid
>> etc?  (I suspect your answer will be "can't see infomask", but I'd
>> rather expose that as a new system column than invent functions like
>> these.)

> Interesting idea, but aren't they keywords? How many system columns
> would we need to represent each of the info flags?

Just one; I was imagining just returning the whole bitmask.  See
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2005-02/msg00636.php

> The other thing was the ability to see headers of dead tuples as well so
> as to understand what is on the page in total, not just the visible
> portion of it.

Ah, that's a good point.

            regards, tom lane