Chapter 52. Overview of PostgreSQL Internals

Table of Contents

52.1. The Path of a Query
52.2. How Connections Are Established
52.3. The Parser Stage
52.3.1. Parser
52.3.2. Transformation Process
52.4. The PostgreSQL Rule System
52.5. Planner/Optimizer
52.5.1. Generating Possible Plans
52.6. 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.