Re: Default setting for enable_hashagg_disk

On Tue, Jun 09, 2020 at 06:20:13PM -0700, Melanie Plageman wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 9, 2020 at 1:02 PM Jeff Davis <pgsql@j-davis.com> wrote:
> 
> > 2. enable_groupingsets_hash_disk (default false):
> >
> > This is about how we choose which grouping sets to hash and which to
> > sort when generating mixed mode paths.
> >
> > Even before this patch, there are quite a few paths that could be
> > generated. It tries to estimate the size of each grouping set's hash
> > table, and then see how many it can fit in work_mem (knapsack), while
> > also taking advantage of any path keys, etc.
> >
> > With Disk-based Hash Aggregation, in principle we can generate paths
> > representing any combination of hashing and sorting for the grouping
> > sets. But that would be overkill (and grow to a huge number of paths if
> > we have more than a handful of grouping sets). So I think the existing
> > planner logic for grouping sets is fine for now. We might come up with
> > a better approach later.
> >
> > But that created a testing problem, because if the planner estimates
> > correctly, no hashed grouping sets will spill, and the spilling code
> > won't be exercised. This GUC makes the planner disregard which grouping
> > sets' hash tables will fit, making it much easier to exercise the
> > spilling code. Is there a better way I should be testing this code
> > path?
>
> So, I was catching up on email and noticed the last email in this
> thread.
> 
> I think I am not fully understanding what enable_groupingsets_hash_disk
> does. Is it only for testing?

If so, it should be in category: "Developer Options".

> Using the tests you added to src/test/regress/sql/groupingsets.sql, I
> did get a plan that looks like hashagg is spilling to disk (goes through
> hashagg_spill_tuple() code path and has number of batches reported in
> Explain) in a MixedAgg plan for a grouping sets query even with
> enable_groupingsets_hash_disk set to false.

> I'm not sure if this is more what you were looking for--or maybe I am
> misunderstanding the guc.

The behavior of the GUC is inconsistent with the other GUCs, which is
confusing.  See also Robert's comments in this thread.
https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/20200407223900.GT2228%40telsasoft.com

The old (pre-13) behavior was:
 - work_mem is the amount of RAM to which each query node tries to constrain
   itself, and the planner will reject a plan if it's expected to exceed that.
   ...But a chosen plan might exceed work_mem anyway.

The new behavior in v13 seems to be:
 - HashAgg now respects work_mem, but instead enable*hash_disk are
   opportunisitic.  A node which is *expected* to spill to disk will be
   rejected.
   ...But at execution time, a node which exceeds work_mem will be spilled.

If someone sees a plan which spills to disk and wants to improve performance by
avoid spilling, they might SET enable_hashagg_disk=off, which might do what
they want (if the plan is rejected at plan time), or it might not, which I
think will be a surprise every time.

If someone agrees, I suggest to add this as an Opened Item.

Maybe some combination of these would be an improvement:

 - change documentation to emphasize behavior;
 - change EXPLAIN ouput to make it obvious this isn't misbehaving;
 - rename the GUC to not start with enable_* (work_mem_exceed?)
 - rename the GUC *values* to something other than on/off. On/Planner?
 - change the GUC to behave like it sounds like it should, which means "off"
   would allow the pre-13 behavior of exceeding work_mem.
 - Maybe make it ternary, like:
   exceed_work_mem: {spill_disk, planner_reject, allow}

-- 
Justin