> > The main benefit is that you can track how EXPLAIN plans change over time.
It is not required to output plan *into* some table to be able track it over time. If EXPLAIN returns a table, it is up to you to perform "insert into history select * from explain(...)". Workflow that does not make sense for me is "look at plans generated _into some plan_table_ by other sessions in Oracle". I am 100% sure it really makes sense have some view like pg_execute_plan that will reveal execution plans for currently running queries (see v$sql_plan in Oracle). However, I would stress once again I have no idea what the sense could be in "one session explained into plan_table, while the other reads that plan". Does that make sense? Regards, Vladimir Sitnikov
