Configuration parameter

enable_tidscan — PostgreSQL configuration parameter

Category Query Planning Default on

Enables or disables the query planner’s use of TID scan plan types.

At a glance

Property Value
Parameter enable_tidscan
Category Query Planning
Default on
Value type boolean (on/off)
Change scope Per-session (SET)
Available in PostgreSQL 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 (added in 12)

What it does

Enables or disables the query planner’s use of TID scan plan types. The default is on.

(Description quoted from the official PostgreSQL documentation.)

How to apply a change

Can be set per session with SET, per role/database with ALTER ROLE/DATABASE ... SET, or globally in postgresql.conf.

Inspect the current value and source with SHOW enable_tidscan; or SELECT name, setting, unit, context, source FROM pg_settings WHERE name = 'enable_tidscan';.

Tuning guidance

This is a diagnostic switch, not a production tuning knob. Turn it off briefly (per session) to confirm why the planner avoids or prefers a plan, then leave it on. Forcing it off in production masks bad estimates instead of fixing them — fix statistics, costs or indexes instead.

Reference

PostgreSQL documentation — enable_tidscan.

Keep going

Related & next steps

Concepts on this page

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