Re: New feature request: FlashBack Query

On Sat, Feb 17, 2007 at 11:48:55AM -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> "Joshua D. Drake" <jd(at)commandprompt(dot)com> writes:
> > RPK wrote:
> >> Future versions of PostgreSQL must have similar features which enable users
> >> to bring Table(s) and/or Database(s) to a desired Time Stamp.
>
> > We can do it with databases, we can't do it with tables. Nor should we
> > do it with tables as it would require that all tables in relation are
> > also flashed backed.
>
> AFAICT this is a request to re-instate Time Travel, which is a feature
> we removed more than ten years ago because the overhead was utterly
> unacceptable. And the project's idea of acceptable performance then
> was orders of magnitude weaker than it is now. So it's not going to
> happen, at least not in the general release. You might take a look at
> contrib/spi/README.timetravel, though, for a prototype of how something
> similar can be achieved without any changes to the core system. That
> module is a bit unmaintained and could doubtless do with some updates
> --- for starters, it should be using timestamptz instead of the old
> deprecated abstime. If you're interested, feel free to work on it.
> No one else has taken an interest in a long time.
>

For other recent time travel ideas see: http://www.varlena.com/GeneralBits/122.php
Time travel is not cheap, though.

--elein
elein(at)varlena(dot)com