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> In most databases, altering a schema is an operation that's over quickly

I think many people were burned by MySQL InnoDB, which modifies (or modified; I'm still on quite an old version) schemas by making a new table and copying the data, and don't realise that all databases don't do that.

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I can confirm that is still the case with latest MySQL version, which is why my company is moving to PostgreSQL.

You're wrong. http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/innodb-create-index-o...

InnoDB tables have online, non-copying (for most operations) DDL in 5.6. Also, TokuDB has had online, non-copying DDL (column add and drop, add index) since TokuDB 5.0.

the mysql documentation definatly states otherwise: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/innodb-create-index-o...

Was that InnoDB or MyISAM? I didn't realize it used the same technique on both.

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