Chapter 54. Overview of PostgreSQL Internals

Table of Contents

54.1. The Path of a Query
54.2. How Connections Are Established
54.3. The Parser Stage
54.3.1. Parser
54.3.2. Transformation Process
54.4. The PostgreSQL Rule System
54.5. Planner/Optimizer
54.5.1. Generating Possible Plans
54.6. Executor

Author

This chapter originated as part of [sim98] Stefan Simkovics' Master's Thesis prepared at Vienna University of Technology under the direction of O.Univ.Prof.Dr. Georg Gottlob and Univ.Ass. Mag. Katrin Seyr.

This chapter gives an overview of the internal structure of the backend of PostgreSQL. After having read the following sections you should have an idea of how a query is processed. This chapter is intended to help the reader understand the general sequence of operations that occur within the backend from the point at which a query is received, to the point at which the results are returned to the client.