> I can see a couple possible downsides: (a) the library might have some

> weird behavior across fork boundaries; (b) the additional memory space
> that has to be duplicated into child processes will cost something per
> child launch, even if the child never uses it.  But these are only
> arguments that it might not *always* be a prudent thing to do, not that
> we shouldn't give the DBA the tool to do it if he wants.  So fire away.

Here is a patch for the above, including a documentation update. It
creates a new GUC variable "preload_libraries", that accepts a list in
the form:

   preload_libraries = '$libdir/mylib1:initfunc,$libdir/mylib2'

If ":initfunc" is omitted or not found, no initialization function is
executed, but the library is still preloaded. If "$libdir/mylib" isn't
found, the postmaster refuses to start.

In my testing with PL/R, it reduces the first call to a PL/R function
(after connecting) from almost 2 seconds, down to about 8 ms.

Joe Conway

src/backend/utils/misc/postgresql.conf.sample

@@ -214,4 +214,5 @@
 #transform_null_equals = false
 #statement_timeout = 0		# 0 is disabled, in milliseconds
 #db_user_namespace = false
+#preload_libraries = ''