I agree with Dick! Always and never are to be used in cases like "the sun always rises in the east: or "I've never enjoyed working with Oracle more than I do now" :) Regards! --- "Goulet, Dick" <DGoulet@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > Looked at Richard Foote's paper. Don't know about > that. I did prove to > OTS several years ago that a block could get "lost" > in an index due to > deletion/updates that left it empty. I believe that > got finally fixed > in Oracle 8i. I've still seen cases of index's > becoming unbalanced, I > know the docs day it's impossible, but it does > happen without the index > height increasing. And I still believe that index > deletes don't get > flushed so efficiently, as Richard suggests. If > that was the case then > I can't explain why an index rebuild can cause an > index to shrink by 30% > or more. And recent experience still shows that a > rebuild can cause > significant performance improvement. And Oracle has > provided the > capability to rebuild indexes which is not trivial. > Therefore, NEVER > use the word "never" unless your absolutely certain > that under all > circumstances it will be absolutely true. And in > the current context, > that is the truth, that is, never can never be an > absolute. > > BTW: Since we've a few "myth busters" in the group. > I appreciate the > effort these people put into "myth busting", even if > they are later > proven to have erred. At a very minimum they start > discussion and > re-examination of commonly held beliefs that can > have changed or lost > significance over the years(like it's best to have > all of a tables data > in the first extent). Such discussion, although > sometimes the start of > "Holy Wars", is healthy (not the Holy War though) > and a necessary part > of all of us growing. That being said, let it be > noted that I agree to > disagree, in part, with Mr Foote. > > > Dick Goulet > Senior Oracle DBA > Oracle Certified 8i DBA > -----Original Message----- > From: Jared Still [mailto:jkstill@xxxxxxxxx]=20 > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 12:44 PM > To: oraclel@xxxxxxxxxx > Cc: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: Re: Index rebuilding > > On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 11:49:46 +0100, Karsten Weikop > <oraclel@xxxxxxxxxx> > wrote: > > Please read the execellent paper from Richard > Foote (which can be > > downloaded from Miracle's site): > > > http://www.miracleas.dk/images/upload/Docs/Richard%20Foote.pdf > > Conclusion form this paper: Never Rebuild, but > find the course to the > > problem. > > Never? > > I think you will find that statement as difficult to > support as > 'always rebuild'. > > --=20 > Jared Still > Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist > -- > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l > -- > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Check out the new Yahoo! Front Page. www.yahoo.com -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l