diff --git a/src/backend/access/hash/hash.c b/src/backend/access/hash/hash.c
index 19695ee102..30c82e191c 100644
--- a/src/backend/access/hash/hash.c
+++ b/src/backend/access/hash/hash.c
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 #include "access/relscan.h"
 #include "catalog/index.h"
 #include "commands/vacuum.h"
+#include "miscadmin.h"
 #include "optimizer/plancat.h"
 #include "utils/index_selfuncs.h"
 #include "utils/rel.h"
@@ -97,6 +98,7 @@ hashbuild(Relation heap, Relation index, IndexInfo *indexInfo)
 	double		reltuples;
 	double		allvisfrac;
 	uint32		num_buckets;
+	long		sort_threshold;
 	HashBuildState buildstate;
 
 	/*
@@ -120,12 +122,24 @@ hashbuild(Relation heap, Relation index, IndexInfo *indexInfo)
 	 * then we'll thrash horribly.  To prevent that scenario, we can sort the
 	 * tuples by (expected) bucket number.  However, such a sort is useless
 	 * overhead when the index does fit in RAM.  We choose to sort if the
-	 * initial index size exceeds NBuffers.
+	 * initial index size exceeds maintenance_work_mem, or the number of
+	 * buffers usable for the index, whichever is less.  (Limiting by the
+	 * number of buffers should reduce thrashing between PG buffers and kernel
+	 * buffers, which seems useful even if no physical I/O results.  Limiting
+	 * by maintenance_work_mem is useful to allow easy testing of the sort
+	 * code path, and may be useful to DBAs as an additional control knob.)
 	 *
 	 * NOTE: this test will need adjustment if a bucket is ever different from
-	 * one page.
+	 * one page.  Also, "initial index size" accounting does not include the
+	 * metapage, nor the first bitmap page.
 	 */
-	if (num_buckets >= (uint32) NBuffers)
+	sort_threshold = (maintenance_work_mem * 1024L) / BLCKSZ;
+	if (index->rd_rel->relpersistence != RELPERSISTENCE_TEMP)
+		sort_threshold = Min(sort_threshold, NBuffers);
+	else
+		sort_threshold = Min(sort_threshold, NLocBuffer);
+
+	if (num_buckets >= (uint32) sort_threshold)
 		buildstate.spool = _h_spoolinit(heap, index, num_buckets);
 	else
 		buildstate.spool = NULL;
diff --git a/src/backend/access/hash/hashsort.c b/src/backend/access/hash/hashsort.c
index 51b9f3f792..8938ab5b24 100644
--- a/src/backend/access/hash/hashsort.c
+++ b/src/backend/access/hash/hashsort.c
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ struct HSpool
 {
 	Tuplesortstate *sortstate;	/* state data for tuplesort.c */
 	Relation	index;
+	uint32		hash_mask;		/* bitmask for hash codes */
 };
 
 
@@ -47,7 +48,6 @@ HSpool *
 _h_spoolinit(Relation heap, Relation index, uint32 num_buckets)
 {
 	HSpool	   *hspool = (HSpool *) palloc0(sizeof(HSpool));
-	uint32		hash_mask;
 
 	hspool->index = index;
 
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ _h_spoolinit(Relation heap, Relation index, uint32 num_buckets)
 	 * we could just compute num_buckets - 1.  We prefer not to assume that
 	 * here, though.
 	 */
-	hash_mask = (((uint32) 1) << _hash_log2(num_buckets)) - 1;
+	hspool->hash_mask = (((uint32) 1) << _hash_log2(num_buckets)) - 1;
 
 	/*
 	 * We size the sort area as maintenance_work_mem rather than work_mem to
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ _h_spoolinit(Relation heap, Relation index, uint32 num_buckets)
 	 */
 	hspool->sortstate = tuplesort_begin_index_hash(heap,
 												   index,
-												   hash_mask,
+												   hspool->hash_mask,
 												   maintenance_work_mem,
 												   false);
 
@@ -105,12 +105,29 @@ _h_indexbuild(HSpool *hspool)
 {
 	IndexTuple	itup;
 	bool		should_free;
+#ifdef USE_ASSERT_CHECKING
+	uint32		hashkey = 0;
+#endif
 
 	tuplesort_performsort(hspool->sortstate);
 
 	while ((itup = tuplesort_getindextuple(hspool->sortstate,
 										   true, &should_free)) != NULL)
 	{
+		/*
+		 * Technically, it isn't critical that hash keys be found in sorted
+		 * order, since this sorting is only used to increase locality of
+		 * access as a performance optimization.  It still seems like a good
+		 * idea to test tuplesort.c's handling of hash index tuple sorts
+		 * through an assertion, though.
+		 */
+#ifdef USE_ASSERT_CHECKING
+		uint32		lasthashkey = hashkey;
+
+		hashkey = _hash_get_indextuple_hashkey(itup) & hspool->hash_mask;
+		Assert(hashkey >= lasthashkey);
+#endif
+
 		_hash_doinsert(hspool->index, itup);
 		if (should_free)
 			pfree(itup);
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/create_index.out b/src/test/regress/expected/create_index.out
index 97cc49e623..0be5cf2dbe 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/create_index.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/create_index.out
@@ -2346,6 +2346,13 @@ CREATE UNLOGGED TABLE unlogged_hash_table (id int4);
 CREATE INDEX unlogged_hash_index ON unlogged_hash_table USING hash (id int4_ops);
 DROP TABLE unlogged_hash_table;
 -- CREATE INDEX hash_ovfl_index ON hash_ovfl_heap USING hash (x int4_ops);
+-- Test hash index build tuplesorting.  Force hash tuplesort using low
+-- maintenance_work_mem setting and fillfactor:
+SET maintenance_work_mem = '1MB';
+CREATE INDEX hash_tuplesort_idx ON tenk1 USING hash (stringu1 name_ops) WITH (fillfactor = 10);
+WARNING:  hash indexes are not WAL-logged and their use is discouraged
+DROP INDEX hash_tuplesort_idx;
+RESET maintenance_work_mem;
 --
 -- Test functional index
 --
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/create_index.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/create_index.sql
index 7c582ea810..7e0bd84ff7 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/create_index.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/create_index.sql
@@ -690,6 +690,13 @@ DROP TABLE unlogged_hash_table;
 
 -- CREATE INDEX hash_ovfl_index ON hash_ovfl_heap USING hash (x int4_ops);
 
+-- Test hash index build tuplesorting.  Force hash tuplesort using low
+-- maintenance_work_mem setting and fillfactor:
+SET maintenance_work_mem = '1MB';
+CREATE INDEX hash_tuplesort_idx ON tenk1 USING hash (stringu1 name_ops) WITH (fillfactor = 10);
+DROP INDEX hash_tuplesort_idx;
+RESET maintenance_work_mem;
+
 
 --
 -- Test functional index