Sets the maximum size of a GIN index’s pending list, which is used when fastupdate is enabled.
At a glance
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Parameter | gin_pending_list_limit |
| Category | Client Connection Defaults |
| Default | four |
| Value type | integer |
| Change scope | Per-session (SET) |
| Available in | PostgreSQL 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 (added in 12) |
What it does
Sets the maximum size of a GIN index’s pending list, which is used when fastupdate is enabled. If the list grows larger than this maximum size, it is cleaned up by moving the entries in it to the index’s main GIN data structure in bulk. If this value is specified without units, it is taken as kilobytes. The default is four megabytes (4MB). This setting can be overridden for individual GIN indexes by changing index storage parameters. See gin_fast_update and gin_tips for more information.
(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 gin_pending_list_limit; or SELECT name, setting, unit, context, source FROM pg_settings WHERE name = 'gin_pending_list_limit';.
Tuning guidance
This sets a session default (locale, formatting, search path or transaction behaviour) rather than a performance knob. Set it per role or database with ALTER ROLE/DATABASE ... SET so the right default follows the right workload, and prefer setting it explicitly in the application for behaviour the query results depend on.