Update OID item description.

1 files changed, 15 insertions, 32 deletions

diff --git a/doc/src/FAQ/FAQ.html b/doc/src/FAQ/FAQ.html
index ec6a92b960a..37e2ec37b4f 100644
--- a/doc/src/FAQ/FAQ.html
+++ b/doc/src/FAQ/FAQ.html
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
   alink="#0000ff">
     <H1>Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for PostgreSQL</H1>
 
-    <P>Last updated: Wed Jan 19 14:45:22 EST 2005</P>
+    <P>Last updated: Sat Jan 29 21:05:17 EST 2005</P>
 
     <P>Current maintainer: Bruce Momjian (<A href=
     "mailto:pgman@candle.pha.pa.us">pgman@candle.pha.pa.us</A>)<BR>
@@ -1190,37 +1190,20 @@ BYTEA           bytea           variable-length byte array (null-byte safe)
     <H4><A name="4.15">4.15</A>) What is an <SMALL>OID</SMALL>? What is
     a <SMALL>TID</SMALL>?</H4>
 
-    <P><SMALL>OID</SMALL>s are PostgreSQL's answer to unique row ids.
-    Every row that is created in PostgreSQL gets a unique
-    <SMALL>OID</SMALL>. All <SMALL>OID</SMALL>s generated during
-    <I>initdb</I> are less than 16384 (from
-    <I>include/access/transam.h</I>). All user-created
-    <SMALL>OID</SMALL>s are equal to or greater than this. By default,
-    all these <SMALL>OID</SMALL>s are unique not only within a table or
-    database, but unique within the entire PostgreSQL installation.</P>
-
-    <P>PostgreSQL uses <SMALL>OID</SMALL>s in its internal system
-    tables to link rows between tables. These <SMALL>OID</SMALL>s can
-    be used to identify specific user rows and used in joins. It is
-    recommended you use column type <SMALL>OID</SMALL> to store
-    <SMALL>OID</SMALL> values. You can create an index on the
-    <SMALL>OID</SMALL> field for faster access.</P>
-
-    <P>O<SMALL>ID</SMALL>s are assigned to all new rows from a central
-    area that is used by all databases. If you want to change the
-    <SMALL>OID</SMALL> to something else, or if you want to make a copy
-    of the table, with the original <SMALL>OID</SMALL>s, there is no
-    reason you can't do it:</P>
-<PRE>
-        CREATE TABLE new_table(mycol int);
-        SELECT oid AS old_oid, mycol INTO tmp_table FROM old_table;
-        COPY tmp_table TO '/tmp/pgtable';
-        COPY new_table WITH OIDS FROM '/tmp/pgtable';
-        DROP TABLE tmp_table;
-</PRE>
-    <P>O<SMALL>ID</SMALL>s are stored as 4-byte integers, and will
-    overflow at 4 billion. No one has reported this ever happening, and
-    we plan to have the limit removed before anyone does.</P>
+    <P>Every row that is created in PostgreSQL gets a unique
+    <SMALL>OID</SMALL> unless created <SMALL>WITHOUT OIDS</SMALL>.
+    O<SMALL>ID</SMALL>s are autotomatically assigned unique 4-byte
+    integers that are unique across the entire installation.  However,
+    they overflow at 4 billion, and then the O<SMALL>ID</SMALL>s start
+    being duplicated. PostgreSQL uses <SMALL>OID</SMALL>s to link its
+    internal system tables together.</P>
+
+    <P>To uniquely number columns in user tables, it is best to use
+    <SMALL>SERIAL</> rather than O<SMALL>ID</SMALL>s because
+    <SMALL>SERIAL<SMALL> sequences are unique only within a single
+    table. and are therefore less likely to overflow.
+    <SMALL>SERIAL8</SMALL> is available for storing eight-byte sequence
+    values.</P>
 
     <P>T<SMALL>ID</SMALL>s are used to identify specific physical rows
     with block and offset values. T<SMALL>ID</SMALL>s change after rows