Re: Does slot_deform_tuple need to care about dropped columns?

Hi,

On 2018-11-07 12:58:16 -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de> writes:
> > ... in the case the attribute isn't already deformed, the
> > following hunk exists:
> 
> > 	/*
> > 	 * If the attribute's column has been dropped, we force a NULL result.
> > 	 * This case should not happen in normal use, but it could happen if we
> > 	 * are executing a plan cached before the column was dropped.
> > 	 */
> > 	if (TupleDescAttr(tupleDesc, attnum - 1)->attisdropped)
> > 	{
> > 		*isnull = true;
> > 		return (Datum) 0;
> > 	}
> 
> > Which strikes me as quite odd. If somebody previously accessed a *later*
> > column (be it via slot_getattr, or slot_getsomeattrs), the whole
> > attisdropped check is neutralized.
> 
> Good point.  Let's remove it and see what happens.

Done that just now.


> > Tom, you added that code way back when, in a9b05bdc8330. And as far as I
> > can tell that issue existed back then too.
> 
> I was just transposing code that had existed before that in ExecEvalVar.
> Evidently I didn't think hard about whether the protection was
> bulletproof.  But since it isn't, maybe we don't need it at all.
> I think our checks for obsoleted plans are a lot more bulletproof
> than they were back then, so it's entirely likely the issue is moot.

Yea, I think it ought to be moot these days. If not we better make it
so.

Greetings,

Andres Freund