v6-0001-message-in-pg_terminate_backend-and-pg_cancel_backend.patch

From 3e166b0fb0cc9800a9a898240adb4750e4c6c705 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Warda Bibi <wardabibi221@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2026 20:12:58 +0500
Subject: [PATCH v6] message in pg_terminate_backend and pg_cancel_backend
 
Sometimes it is useful to terminate or cancel a backend with an
additional message explaining the reason, so the client sees something
more informative than the generic error text.

This patch adds an optional message argument to pg_terminate_backend()
and pg_cancel_backend(), folded into the existing functions via DEFAULT
parameters so no new catalog entries are needed:

  pg_cancel_backend(pid integer, message text DEFAULT '')
  pg_terminate_backend(pid integer, timeout int8 DEFAULT 0, message text DEFAULT '')

The message is stored in a dedicated shared memory region
(BackendMsgSlots, one slot per MaxBackends indexed by ProcNumber) and
read by the target backend in ProcessInterrupts() before the
ereport(FATAL/ERROR). Unicode-safe truncation is applied via
pg_mbcliplen() if the message exceeds BACKEND_MSG_MAX_LEN bytes, with
a NOTICE emitted to the caller.

Author: Daniel Gustafsson <daniel@yesql.se>
Author: Roman Khapov <r.khapov@ya.ru>
Reviewed-by: Kirill Reshke <reshkekirill@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Jim Jones <jim.jones@uni-muenster.de>
Reviewed-by: Andrey Borodin <x4mmm@yandex-team.ru>
---
 src/backend/catalog/system_functions.sql | 10 ++++++
 src/backend/storage/ipc/signalfuncs.c    | 32 ++----------------
 src/backend/tcop/postgres.c              |  8 ++---
 src/backend/utils/misc/backend_msg.c     | 41 +++++++++---------------
 src/include/catalog/pg_proc.dat          | 15 +++------
 src/include/utils/backend_msg.h          |  4 ++-
 6 files changed, 41 insertions(+), 69 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/catalog/system_functions.sql b/src/backend/catalog/system_functions.sql
index 69699f8830a..7dbad6a279b 100644
--- a/src/backend/catalog/system_functions.sql
+++ b/src/backend/catalog/system_functions.sql
@@ -378,6 +378,16 @@ BEGIN ATOMIC
 END;
 
 
+CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION
+  pg_cancel_backend(pid integer, message text DEFAULT '')
+  RETURNS boolean STRICT VOLATILE LANGUAGE INTERNAL AS 'pg_cancel_backend'
+  PARALLEL SAFE;
+
+CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION
+  pg_terminate_backend(pid integer, timeout int8 DEFAULT 0, message text DEFAULT '')
+  RETURNS boolean STRICT VOLATILE LANGUAGE INTERNAL AS 'pg_terminate_backend'
+  PARALLEL SAFE;
+
 --
 -- The default permissions for functions mean that anyone can execute them.
 -- A number of functions shouldn't be executable by just anyone, but rather
diff --git a/src/backend/storage/ipc/signalfuncs.c b/src/backend/storage/ipc/signalfuncs.c
index 2501ec58658..eabb341a2ba 100644
--- a/src/backend/storage/ipc/signalfuncs.c
+++ b/src/backend/storage/ipc/signalfuncs.c
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ pg_signal_backend(int pid, int sig, const char *msg)
 
 	if (msg != NULL && msg[0] != '\0')
 	{
-		int		r = BackendMsgSet(pid, msg);
+		int		r = BackendMsgSet(GetNumberFromPGProc(proc), msg);
 
 		if (r != -1 && r != strlen(msg))
 			ereport(NOTICE,
@@ -172,23 +172,11 @@ pg_cancel_backend_internal(pid_t pid, const char *msg)
 Datum pg_cancel_backend(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 {
 	int		pid;
-
-	pid = PG_GETARG_INT32(0);
-
-	return pg_cancel_backend_internal(pid, NULL);
-}
-
-Datum pg_cancel_backend_msg(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
-{
-	int		pid;
-	char	*msg;
+	char   *msg;
 	Datum	result;
 
 	pid = PG_GETARG_INT32(0);
 	msg = text_to_cstring(PG_GETARG_TEXT_PP(1));
-	if (msg == NULL) {
-		PG_RETURN_BOOL(false);
-	}
 
 	result = pg_cancel_backend_internal(pid, msg);
 
@@ -313,26 +301,12 @@ Datum pg_terminate_backend(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 {
 	int		pid;
 	int		timeout_ms;
-
-	pid = PG_GETARG_INT32(0);
-	timeout_ms = PG_GETARG_INT64(1);
-
-	return pg_terminate_backend_internal(pid, timeout_ms, NULL);
-}
-
-Datum pg_terminate_backend_msg(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
-{
-	int		pid;
-	int		timeout_ms;
-	char	*msg;
+	char   *msg;
 	Datum	result;
 
 	pid = PG_GETARG_INT32(0);
 	timeout_ms = PG_GETARG_INT64(1);
 	msg = text_to_cstring(PG_GETARG_TEXT_PP(2));
-	if (msg == NULL) {
-		PG_RETURN_BOOL(false);
-	}
 
 	result = pg_terminate_backend_internal(pid, timeout_ms, msg);
 
diff --git a/src/backend/tcop/postgres.c b/src/backend/tcop/postgres.c
index 92040d748f4..25d2857f69f 100644
--- a/src/backend/tcop/postgres.c
+++ b/src/backend/tcop/postgres.c
@@ -3402,10 +3402,10 @@ ProcessInterrupts(void)
 						(errcode(ERRCODE_ADMIN_SHUTDOWN),
 						errmsg("terminating connection due to administrator command: %s", msg)));
 			}
-
-			ereport(FATAL,
-					(errcode(ERRCODE_ADMIN_SHUTDOWN),
-					 errmsg("terminating connection due to administrator command")));
+			else
+				ereport(FATAL,
+						(errcode(ERRCODE_ADMIN_SHUTDOWN),
+						 errmsg("terminating connection due to administrator command")));
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/src/backend/utils/misc/backend_msg.c b/src/backend/utils/misc/backend_msg.c
index 34d44069056..560aee148be 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/misc/backend_msg.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/misc/backend_msg.c
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
  * Portions Copyright (c) 1996-2026, PostgreSQL Global Development Group
  * Portions Copyright (c) 1994, Regents of the University of California
  *
- * src/include/utils/misc/backend_msg.c
+ * src/backend/utils/misc/backend_msg.c
  *
  *--------------------------------------------------------------------
  */
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ void BackendMsgInit(int id)
 	on_shmem_exit(backend_msg_slot_clean, Int32GetDatum(0) /* not used */);
 }
 
-int BackendMsgSet(pid_t pid, const char *msg)
+int BackendMsgSet(ProcNumber procno, const char *msg)
 {
 	BackendMsgSlot		*slot;
 	int					len;
@@ -94,35 +94,26 @@ int BackendMsgSet(pid_t pid, const char *msg)
 	if (msg == NULL || msg[0] == '\0')
 		return 0;
 
-	for (int i = 0; i < MaxBackends; ++i)
-	{
-		slot = &BackendMsgSlots[i];
-
-		if (slot->pid == 0 || slot->pid != pid)
-			continue;
-
-		SpinLockAcquire(&slot->lock);
-
-		if (slot->pid != pid)
-		{
-			SpinLockRelease(&slot->lock);
-			break;
-		}
+	slot = &BackendMsgSlots[procno];
 
-		len = pg_mbcliplen(msg, strlen(msg), sizeof(slot->msg) - 1);
-		memcpy(slot->msg, msg, len);
-		slot->msg[len] = '\0';
+	SpinLockAcquire(&slot->lock);
 
+	if (slot->pid == 0)
+	{
 		SpinLockRelease(&slot->lock);
-
-		return len;
+		ereport(LOG,
+				(errmsg("can't set message for missing backend, requested by %ld",
+					(long) MyProcPid)));
+		return -1;
 	}
 
-	ereport(LOG,
-			(errmsg("can't set message for missing backend %ld, requested by %ld",
-				(long) pid, (long) MyProcPid)));
+	len = pg_mbcliplen(msg, strlen(msg), sizeof(slot->msg) - 1);
+	memcpy(slot->msg, msg, len);
+	slot->msg[len] = '\0';
 
-	return -1;
+	SpinLockRelease(&slot->lock);
+
+	return len;
 }
 
 int BackendMsgGet(char *buf, int max_len)
diff --git a/src/include/catalog/pg_proc.dat b/src/include/catalog/pg_proc.dat
index 2732dcb6867..3833fc4ba2c 100644
--- a/src/include/catalog/pg_proc.dat
+++ b/src/include/catalog/pg_proc.dat
@@ -6727,19 +6727,14 @@
 
 { oid => '2171', descr => 'cancel a server process\' current query',
   proname => 'pg_cancel_backend', provolatile => 'v', prorettype => 'bool',
-  proargtypes => 'int4', prosrc => 'pg_cancel_backend' },
-{ oid => '8223', descr => 'cancel a server process\' current query',
-  proname => 'pg_cancel_backend', provolatile => 'v', prorettype => 'bool',
-  proargtypes => 'int4 text', prosrc => 'pg_cancel_backend_msg' },
+  proargtypes => 'int4 text', proargnames => '{pid,message}',
+  proargdefaults => '{""}',
+  prosrc => 'pg_cancel_backend' },
 { oid => '2096', descr => 'terminate a server process',
-  proname => 'pg_terminate_backend', provolatile => 'v', prorettype => 'bool',
-  proargtypes => 'int4 int8', proargnames => '{pid,timeout}',
-  proargdefaults => '{0}',
-  prosrc => 'pg_terminate_backend' },
-{ oid => '8222', descr => 'terminate a server process',
   proname => 'pg_terminate_backend', provolatile => 'v', prorettype => 'bool',
   proargtypes => 'int4 int8 text', proargnames => '{pid,timeout,message}',
-  prosrc => 'pg_terminate_backend_msg' },
+  proargdefaults => '{0,""}',
+  prosrc => 'pg_terminate_backend' },
 { oid => '2172', descr => 'prepare for taking an online backup',
   proname => 'pg_backup_start', provolatile => 'v', proparallel => 'r',
   prorettype => 'pg_lsn', proargtypes => 'text bool',
diff --git a/src/include/utils/backend_msg.h b/src/include/utils/backend_msg.h
index 7e53c59845f..5ccad83af11 100644
--- a/src/include/utils/backend_msg.h
+++ b/src/include/utils/backend_msg.h
@@ -15,12 +15,14 @@
 #ifndef BACKEND_MSG_H
 #define BACKEND_MSG_H
 
+#include "storage/proc.h"
+
 #define BACKEND_MSG_MAX_LEN 128
 
 extern void BackendMsgShmemInit(void);
 extern Size BackendMsgShmemSize(void);
 extern void BackendMsgInit(int id);
-extern int BackendMsgSet(pid_t pid, const char *msg);
+extern int BackendMsgSet(ProcNumber procno, const char *msg);
 extern int BackendMsgGet(char *buf, int max_len);
 extern bool BackendMsgIsSet(void);
 
-- 
2.51.0