access/heapam contains functions that are very storage specific (say
heap_insert() and a lot of lower level functions), and fairly generic
infrastructure like relation_open(), heap_open() etc. In the upcoming
pluggable storage work we're introducing a layer between table
accesses in general and heapam, to allow for different storage
methods. For a bit cleaner separation it thus seems advantageous to
move generic functions like the aforementioned to their own headers.
access/relation.h will contain relation_open() etc, and access/table.h
will contain table_open() (formerly known as heap_open()). I've decided
for table.h not to include relation.h, but we might change that at a
later stage.
relation.h already exists in another directory, but the other
plausible name (rel.h) also conflicts. It'd be nice if there were a
non-conflicting name, but nobody came up with a suggestion. It's
possible that the appropriate way to address the naming conflict would
be to rename nodes/relation.h, which isn't particularly well named.
To avoid breaking a lot of extensions that just use heap_open() etc,
table.h has macros mapping the old names to the new ones, and heapam.h
includes relation, table.h. That also allows to keep the
bulk renaming of existing callers in a separate commit.
Author: Andres Freund
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/20190111000539.xbv7s6w7ilcvm7dp@alap3.anarazel.de
Bruce Momjian
Amit Kapila
Tom Lane
Andres Freund