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From: Bernice Southey <bernice.southey@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2025 19:38:07 +0000
Message-ID: 
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Subject: Re: More guidance on ctid
To: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
Cc: pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org
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Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote:
> We could go in the direction you suggested, but it seems out-of-place in
> the UPDATE/DELETE docs since it gets into a lot of details.  Maybe in
> the locking chapter?
How about if the UPDATE and DELETE examples only show how to get limit
and order by with a cte, and remove all references to locking. No for
update, deadlocks etc. The examples use primary keys and not ctid.
Anyone just trying to do simple limit and order by without locking
problems will get what they need, and won't be confused by the locking
complexity. Anyone trying to solve lock contention needs to understand
locking and should be looking at that chapter. The explanation for
deadlock avoidance should be there as you suggest. Perhaps the update
and delete examples can link to them. If you think this is the right
approach I'm willing to give it a go?

Thanks, Bernice