Re: backend crash on DELETE, reproducible locally

On Fri, Nov 02, 2018 at 11:56:58PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:

> > On Thu, Nov 01, 2018 at 11:43:56AM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> >> Yeah, apparently we've passed a null OLD tuple to an RI_FKey_cascade_del
> >> trigger, which surely shouldn't happen.  It'd be interesting to look at
> >> the set of triggers on this table.  I don't entirely trust psql's \d
> >> to show us reality if there's something screwed up about the triggers,
> >> so in addition to \d output, could we see
> >> select * from pg_trigger where tgrelid  = 'ref.auto_hint'::regclass;
> 
> > [ pretty normal-looking trigger entries ]
> 
> I was feeling baffled about this, but it suddenly occurs to me that maybe
> the bug fixed in 040a1df61/372102b81 explains this.  If the particular
> tuple you're trying to delete predates the last ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN
> operation on the table, then this bug would result in t_self getting
> set to "invalid", which'd cause AfterTriggerSaveEvent to save "ate_ctid1"
> as "invalid", which'd lead to a null tuple getting passed when the trigger
> eventually gets invoked.

Now, that is a theory I can follow up on -- all the
bootstrapping SQL scripts are under version control so I can
pin down the exact sequence of events.

... goes off to do some checks ...

And sure enough there's an ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN related to
that table:

	alter table ref.auto_hint
		add column recommendation_query text;

	-- (audit log table needs to get the new column, too)
	alter table audit.log_auto_hint
		add column recommendation_query text;

before the DELETE of the pre-existing tuple.

When running a rigged upgrade that stops right before those
ALTER TABLEs and then doing the following:

	begin;
	-- instrument:
	insert into ref.auto_hint (title, query, hint, source, lang) values (
		'DELETE test',
		'select 1;',
		'insertion before ADD COLUMN',
		'testing',
		'en'
	);
	-- works:
	DELETE from ref.auto_hint where title = 'DELETE test';
	-- instrument, again:
	insert into ref.auto_hint (title, query, hint, source, lang) values (
		'DELETE test',
		'select 1;',
		'insertion before ADD COLUMN',
		'testing',
		'en'
	);
	alter table ref.auto_hint
		add column recommendation_query text;
	-- audit log table needs to get the message
	alter table audit.log_auto_hint
		add column recommendation_query text;
	-- fails:
	DELETE from ref.auto_hint where title = 'DELETE test';
	rollback;

the expected segfault does indeed occur.

Conversely, moving the offending

	DELETE FROM ref.auto_hint WHERE title = 'Kontraindikation: ACE/Sartan <-> Schwangerschaft';

to right before the ALTER TABLEs makes the full upgrade run
through without further problems.

Looking at 040a1df61/372102b81 feels like it fits the bill.

So, I guess I can work around the issue by the above
manoeuvre and report back once 040a1df61/372102b81 is
released.

Anything else you'd want me to look into ?

Many thanks,
Karsten
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