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  1. Accelerate end-of-transaction dropping of relations

  1. PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2012-08-24T22:36:34Z

    Hi,
    
    attached is a patch that improves performance when dropping multiple
    tables within a transaction. Instead of scanning the shared buffers for
    each table separately, the patch removes this and evicts all the tables
    in a single pass through shared buffers.
    
    Our system creates a lot of "working tables" (even 100.000) and we need
    to perform garbage collection (dropping obsolete tables) regularly. This
    often took ~ 1 hour, because we're using big AWS instances with lots of
    RAM (which tends to be slower than RAM on bare hw). After applying this
    patch and dropping tables in groups of 100, the gc runs in less than 4
    minutes (i.e. a 15x speed-up).
    
    This is not likely to improve usual performance, but for systems like
    ours, this patch is a significant improvement.
    
    kind regards
    Tomas
    
  2. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> — 2012-08-30T15:53:00Z

    On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 6:36 PM, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    > attached is a patch that improves performance when dropping multiple
    > tables within a transaction. Instead of scanning the shared buffers for
    > each table separately, the patch removes this and evicts all the tables
    > in a single pass through shared buffers.
    >
    > Our system creates a lot of "working tables" (even 100.000) and we need
    > to perform garbage collection (dropping obsolete tables) regularly. This
    > often took ~ 1 hour, because we're using big AWS instances with lots of
    > RAM (which tends to be slower than RAM on bare hw). After applying this
    > patch and dropping tables in groups of 100, the gc runs in less than 4
    > minutes (i.e. a 15x speed-up).
    >
    > This is not likely to improve usual performance, but for systems like
    > ours, this patch is a significant improvement.
    
    Seems pretty reasonable.  But instead of duplicating so much code,
    couldn't we find a way to use replace DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers with
    DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList?  Surely anyone who was planning to call
    the first one could instead call the second one with a count of one
    and a pointer to the address of the data they were planning to pass.
    I'd probably swap the order of arguments to
    DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList as well.  We could do something similar
    with smgrdounlink/smgrdounlinkall so that, again, only one copy of the
    code is needed.
    
    -- 
    Robert Haas
    EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
    The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company
    
    
    
  3. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2012-08-30T19:17:46Z

    On 30 Srpen 2012, 17:53, Robert Haas wrote:
    > On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 6:36 PM, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    >> attached is a patch that improves performance when dropping multiple
    >> tables within a transaction. Instead of scanning the shared buffers for
    >> each table separately, the patch removes this and evicts all the tables
    >> in a single pass through shared buffers.
    >>
    >> Our system creates a lot of "working tables" (even 100.000) and we need
    >> to perform garbage collection (dropping obsolete tables) regularly. This
    >> often took ~ 1 hour, because we're using big AWS instances with lots of
    >> RAM (which tends to be slower than RAM on bare hw). After applying this
    >> patch and dropping tables in groups of 100, the gc runs in less than 4
    >> minutes (i.e. a 15x speed-up).
    >>
    >> This is not likely to improve usual performance, but for systems like
    >> ours, this patch is a significant improvement.
    >
    > Seems pretty reasonable.  But instead of duplicating so much code,
    > couldn't we find a way to use replace DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers with
    > DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList?  Surely anyone who was planning to call
    > the first one could instead call the second one with a count of one
    > and a pointer to the address of the data they were planning to pass.
    > I'd probably swap the order of arguments to
    > DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList as well.  We could do something similar
    > with smgrdounlink/smgrdounlinkall so that, again, only one copy of the
    > code is needed.
    
    Yeah, I was thinking about that too, but I simply wasn't sure which is the
    best choice so I've sent the raw patch. OTOH these functions are called on
    a very limited number of places, so a refactoring like this seems fine.
    
    Tomas
    
    
    
    
  4. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> — 2012-08-30T21:48:23Z

    On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 3:17 PM, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    > On 30 Srpen 2012, 17:53, Robert Haas wrote:
    >> On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 6:36 PM, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    >>> attached is a patch that improves performance when dropping multiple
    >>> tables within a transaction. Instead of scanning the shared buffers for
    >>> each table separately, the patch removes this and evicts all the tables
    >>> in a single pass through shared buffers.
    >>>
    >>> Our system creates a lot of "working tables" (even 100.000) and we need
    >>> to perform garbage collection (dropping obsolete tables) regularly. This
    >>> often took ~ 1 hour, because we're using big AWS instances with lots of
    >>> RAM (which tends to be slower than RAM on bare hw). After applying this
    >>> patch and dropping tables in groups of 100, the gc runs in less than 4
    >>> minutes (i.e. a 15x speed-up).
    >>>
    >>> This is not likely to improve usual performance, but for systems like
    >>> ours, this patch is a significant improvement.
    >>
    >> Seems pretty reasonable.  But instead of duplicating so much code,
    >> couldn't we find a way to use replace DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers with
    >> DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList?  Surely anyone who was planning to call
    >> the first one could instead call the second one with a count of one
    >> and a pointer to the address of the data they were planning to pass.
    >> I'd probably swap the order of arguments to
    >> DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList as well.  We could do something similar
    >> with smgrdounlink/smgrdounlinkall so that, again, only one copy of the
    >> code is needed.
    >
    > Yeah, I was thinking about that too, but I simply wasn't sure which is the
    > best choice so I've sent the raw patch. OTOH these functions are called on
    > a very limited number of places, so a refactoring like this seems fine.
    
    If there are enough call sites then DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers could
    become a one-line function that simply calls
    DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList(1, &arg).  But we should avoid
    duplicating the code.
    
    -- 
    Robert Haas
    EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
    The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company
    
    
    
  5. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Shigeru Hanada <shigeru.hanada@gmail.com> — 2012-10-17T10:34:24Z

    Hi Tomas,
    
    Sorry to be late.
    
    On Sat, Aug 25, 2012 at 7:36 AM, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    > attached is a patch that improves performance when dropping multiple
    > tables within a transaction. Instead of scanning the shared buffers for
    > each table separately, the patch removes this and evicts all the tables
    > in a single pass through shared buffers.
    
    Here are my review comments.
    
    Submission
    ==========
    The patch is in unified diff format, and can be applied to the head of
    master.  It doesn't include any test nor document, but it seems ok
    because the patch doesn't change visible behavior.
    
    Usability
    =========
    The patch intends to improve performance of bulk DROP TABLEs which are
    in a transaction.  Such improvement would useful in cases such as  1)
    dropping set of partitioned tables as periodic maintenance work, and 2)
    dropping lot of work tables.  The patch doesn't change any SQL syntax or
    built-in objects, but just change internal behavior.
    
    Feature test
    ============
    The patch doesn't provide no visible functionality, and existing
    regression tests passed.
    
    Performance test
    ================
    I tested 1000 tables case (each is copy of pgbench_branches with 100000
    rows) on 1GB shared_buffers server.  Please note that I tested on
    MacBook air, i.e. storage is not HDD but SSD.  Here is the test procedure:
    
    1) loop 1000 times
     1-1) create copy table of pgbench_accounts as accounts$i
     1-2) load 100000 rows
     1-3) add primary key
     1-4) select all rows to cache pages in shared buffer
    2) BEGIN
    3) loop 1000 times
     3-1) DROP TABLE accounts$i
    4) COMMIT
    
    The numbers below are average of 5 trials.
    
    ---------+----------+-------------
      Build  |   DROP * |   COMMIT
    ---------+----------+-------------
     Master  | 0.239 ms | 1220.421 ms
     Patched | 0.240 ms |  432.209 ms
    ---------+----------+-------------
    * time elapsed for one DROP TABLE statement
    
    IIUC the patch's target is improving COMMIT performance by avoiding
    repeated buffer search loop, so this results show that the patch
    obtained its goal.
    
    Coding review
    =============
    I have some comments about coding.
    
    * Some cosmetic changes are necessary.
    * Variable j in DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList seems redundant.
    * RelFileNodeBackendIsTemp() macro is provided for checking whether the
    relation is local, so using it would be better.
    
    Please see attached patch for changes above.
    
    * As Robert commented, this patch adds DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList by
    copying code from DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers.  Please refactor it to
    avoid code duplication.
    * In smgrDoPendingDeletes, you free srels explicitly.  Can't we leave
    them to memory context stuff?  Even it is required, at least pfree must
    be called in the case nrels == 0 too.
    * In smgrDoPendingDeletes, the buffer srels is expanded in every
    iteration.  This seems a bit inefficient.  How about doubling the
    capacity when used it up?  This requires additional variable, but
    reduces repalloc call considerably.
    * Just an idea, but if we can remove entries for local relations from
    rnodes array before buffer loop in DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList,
    following bsearch might be more efficient, though dropping many
    temporary tables might be rare.
    
    > Our system creates a lot of "working tables" (even 100.000) and we need
    > to perform garbage collection (dropping obsolete tables) regularly. This
    > often took ~ 1 hour, because we're using big AWS instances with lots of
    > RAM (which tends to be slower than RAM on bare hw). After applying this
    > patch and dropping tables in groups of 100, the gc runs in less than 4
    > minutes (i.e. a 15x speed-up).
    
    Hm, my environment seems very different from yours.  Could you show the
    setting of shared_buffers in your environment?  I'd like to make my test
    environment as similar as possible to yours.
    
    > This is not likely to improve usual performance, but for systems like
    > ours, this patch is a significant improvement.
    
    I'll test the performance of bare DROP TABLEs (not surrounded by BEGIN
    and COMMIT) tomorrow to confirm that the patch doesn't introduce
    performance degradation.
    
    Regards,
    -- 
    Shigeru HANADA
    
  6. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2012-10-17T11:45:01Z

    Hi,
    
    thanks for the review. I'll look into that in ~2 weeks, once the 
    pgconf.eu
    is over. A few comments in the text below.
    
    Dne 17.10.2012 12:34, Shigeru HANADA napsal:
    > Performance test
    > ================
    > I tested 1000 tables case (each is copy of pgbench_branches with 
    > 100000
    > rows) on 1GB shared_buffers server.  Please note that I tested on
    > MacBook air, i.e. storage is not HDD but SSD.  Here is the test 
    > procedure:
    >
    > 1) loop 1000 times
    >  1-1) create copy table of pgbench_accounts as accounts$i
    >  1-2) load 100000 rows
    >  1-3) add primary key
    >  1-4) select all rows to cache pages in shared buffer
    > 2) BEGIN
    > 3) loop 1000 times
    >  3-1) DROP TABLE accounts$i
    > 4) COMMIT
    
    I don't think the 'load rows' and 'select all rows' is really 
    necessary.
    And AFAIK sequential scans use small circular buffer not to pollute 
    shared
    buffers, so I'd guess the pages are not cached in shared buffers 
    anyway.
    Have you verified that, e.g. by pg_buffercache?
    
    > The numbers below are average of 5 trials.
    >
    > ---------+----------+-------------
    >   Build  |   DROP * |   COMMIT
    > ---------+----------+-------------
    >  Master  | 0.239 ms | 1220.421 ms
    >  Patched | 0.240 ms |  432.209 ms
    > ---------+----------+-------------
    > * time elapsed for one DROP TABLE statement
    >
    > IIUC the patch's target is improving COMMIT performance by avoiding
    > repeated buffer search loop, so this results show that the patch
    > obtained its goal.
    >
    > Coding review
    > =============
    > I have some comments about coding.
    >
    > * Some cosmetic changes are necessary.
    > * Variable j in DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList seems redundant.
    > * RelFileNodeBackendIsTemp() macro is provided for checking whether 
    > the
    > relation is local, so using it would be better.
    >
    > Please see attached patch for changes above.
    >
    > * As Robert commented, this patch adds DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList 
    > by
    > copying code from DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers.  Please refactor it to
    > avoid code duplication.
    > * In smgrDoPendingDeletes, you free srels explicitly.  Can't we leave
    > them to memory context stuff?  Even it is required, at least pfree 
    > must
    > be called in the case nrels == 0 too.
    > * In smgrDoPendingDeletes, the buffer srels is expanded in every
    > iteration.  This seems a bit inefficient.  How about doubling the
    > capacity when used it up?  This requires additional variable, but
    > reduces repalloc call considerably.
    > * Just an idea, but if we can remove entries for local relations from
    > rnodes array before buffer loop in DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList,
    > following bsearch might be more efficient, though dropping many
    > temporary tables might be rare.
    
    Yes, I plan to do all of this.
    
    >> Our system creates a lot of "working tables" (even 100.000) and we 
    >> need
    >> to perform garbage collection (dropping obsolete tables) regularly. 
    >> This
    >> often took ~ 1 hour, because we're using big AWS instances with lots 
    >> of
    >> RAM (which tends to be slower than RAM on bare hw). After applying 
    >> this
    >> patch and dropping tables in groups of 100, the gc runs in less than 
    >> 4
    >> minutes (i.e. a 15x speed-up).
    >
    > Hm, my environment seems very different from yours.  Could you show 
    > the
    > setting of shared_buffers in your environment?  I'd like to make my 
    > test
    > environment as similar as possible to yours.
    
    We're using m2.4xlarge instances (70G of RAM) with 10GB shared buffers.
    
    Tomas
    
    
    
  7. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Shigeru Hanada <shigeru.hanada@gmail.com> — 2012-10-18T02:28:32Z

    Hi Tomas,
    
    On 2012/10/17, at 20:45, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    > 
    > Dne 17.10.2012 12:34, Shigeru HANADA napsal:
    >> Performance test
    >> ================
    >> I tested 1000 tables case (each is copy of pgbench_branches with 100000
    >> rows) on 1GB shared_buffers server.  Please note that I tested on
    >> MacBook air, i.e. storage is not HDD but SSD.  Here is the test procedure:
    >> 
    >> 1) loop 1000 times
    >> 1-1) create copy table of pgbench_accounts as accounts$i
    >> 1-2) load 100000 rows
    >> 1-3) add primary key
    >> 1-4) select all rows to cache pages in shared buffer
    >> 2) BEGIN
    >> 3) loop 1000 times
    >> 3-1) DROP TABLE accounts$i
    >> 4) COMMIT
    > 
    > I don't think the 'load rows' and 'select all rows' is really necessary.
    > And AFAIK sequential scans use small circular buffer not to pollute shared
    > buffers, so I'd guess the pages are not cached in shared buffers anyway.
    > Have you verified that, e.g. by pg_buffercache?
    
    Oops, you're right.  I omitted 1-3 and 1-4 in actual measurement, but IMO loading data is necessary to fill the shared buffer up, because # of buffers which are deleted during COMMIT is major factor of this patch.  And, yes, I verified that all shared buffers are used after all loading have been finished.
    
    > 
    >>> Our system creates a lot of "working tables" (even 100.000) and we need
    >>> to perform garbage collection (dropping obsolete tables) regularly. This
    >>> often took ~ 1 hour, because we're using big AWS instances with lots of
    >>> RAM (which tends to be slower than RAM on bare hw). After applying this
    >>> patch and dropping tables in groups of 100, the gc runs in less than 4
    >>> minutes (i.e. a 15x speed-up).
    >> 
    >> Hm, my environment seems very different from yours.  Could you show the
    >> setting of shared_buffers in your environment?  I'd like to make my test
    >> environment as similar as possible to yours.
    > 
    > We're using m2.4xlarge instances (70G of RAM) with 10GB shared buffers.
    
    Thank you, it's more huge than I expected.  I'm not sure whether my boss allows me to use such rich environment... :(
    
    
    Here are results of additional measurements on my MBA.
    
    * stats of 1000 bare DROP TABLE statements
    
    90%ile of patched PG is just 2% slower than Master, so it would be acceptable.
    
             |  Patched   |   Master
    ---------+------------+------------
     Average |   1.595 ms |   1.634 ms
     Median  |   1.791 ms |   1.900 ms
     90%ile  |   2.517 ms |   2.477 ms
     Max	 |  37.526 ms |  24.553 ms
    
    * Total time to complete 1000 DROP TABLEs and COMMIT
    
           | Patched |  Master
    -------+---------+---------
     Bare  | 1595 ms | 1634 ms
     In TX |  672 ms | 1459 ms
    
    Regards,
    --
    Shigeru HANADA
    shigeru.hanada@gmail.com
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
  8. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@2ndquadrant.com> — 2012-10-18T15:58:53Z

    Tomas Vondra wrote:
    > Hi,
    > 
    > thanks for the review. I'll look into that in ~2 weeks, once the
    > pgconf.eu
    > is over.
    
    Excellent.  Please submit the updated version to the upcoming commitfest
    when you have it.  I'm marking this patch Returned with Feedback.
    Many thanks to Shigeru Hanada for the review and benchmark.
    
    -- 
    Álvaro Herrera                http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
    PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services
    
    
    
  9. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2012-11-11T19:36:46Z

    Hi,
    
    I've prepared a slightly updated patch, based on the previous review.
    See it attached.
    
    On 18.10.2012 04:28, 花田 茂 wrote:> Hi Tomas,
    >
    > On 2012/10/17, at 20:45, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    >>
    >> Dne 17.10.2012 12:34, Shigeru HANADA napsal:
    >>> Performance test
    >>> ================
    >>> I tested 1000 tables case (each is copy of pgbench_branches with 
    >>> 100000 rows) on 1GB shared_buffers server. Please note that I 
    >>> tested on MacBook air, i.e. storage is not HDD but SSD. Here is 
    >>> the test procedure:
    >>>
    >>> 1) loop 1000 times
    >>> 1-1) create copy table of pgbench_accounts as accounts$i
    >>> 1-2) load 100000 rows
    >>> 1-3) add primary key
    >>> 1-4) select all rows to cache pages in shared buffer
    >>> 2) BEGIN
    >>> 3) loop 1000 times
    >>> 3-1) DROP TABLE accounts$i
    >>> 4) COMMIT
    >>
    >> I don't think the 'load rows' and 'select all rows' is really 
    >> necessary. And AFAIK sequential scans use small circular buffer
    >> not to pollute sharedbuffers, so I'd guess the pages are not cached
    >> in shared buffers anyway. Have you verified that, e.g. by
    >> pg_buffercache?
    >
    > Oops, you're right. I omitted 1-3 and 1-4 in actual measurement, but
    > IMO loading data is necessary to fill the shared buffer up, because
    > # of buffers which are deleted during COMMIT is major factor of this
    > patch. And, yes, I verified that all shared buffers are used after
    > all loading have been finished.
    
    I don't think it's an important factor, as the original code does this:
    
      for (i = 0; i < NBuffers; i++)
      {
        volatile BufferDesc *bufHdr = &BufferDescriptors[i];
        ...
      }
    
    in the DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers. That loops through all shared buffers
    no matter what, so IMHO the performance in this case depends on the
    total size of the shared buffers. But maybe I'm missing something important.
    
    >>>> Our system creates a lot of "working tables" (even 100.000)
    >>>> and we need to perform garbage collection (dropping obsolete 
    >>>> tables) regularly. Thisoften took ~ 1 hour, because we're using
    >>>> big AWS instances with lots of RAM (which tends to be slower
    >>>> than RAM on bare hw). After applying this patch and dropping
    >>>> tables in groups of 100, the gc runs in less than 4 minutes
    >>>> (i.e. a 15x speed-up).
    >>>
    >>> Hm, my environment seems very different from yours. Could you
    >>> show the setting of shared_buffers in your environment? I'd like
    >>> to make my test environment as similar as possible to yours.
    >>
    >> We're using m2.4xlarge instances (70G of RAM) with 10GB shared
    >> buffers.
    >
    > Thank you, it's more huge than I expected. I'm not sure whether my
    > boss allows me to use such rich environment... :(
    
    I've done a simple benchmark on my laptop with 2GB shared buffers, it's
    attached in the drop-test.py (it's a bit messy, but it works).
    
    It does four things:
    
    1) creates N tables
    2) drops them one by one
    3) creates N tables
    4) drops them in batches (batch = one transaction)
    
    To run the script, simply specify number of tables you want to work with
    (say 10000), size of the batch (e.g. 100) and connection string (e.g.
    'host=localhost dbname=mydb').
    
    With those parameters, I got these numbers on the laptop:
    
      creating 10000 tables
        all tables created in 3.298694 seconds
      dropping 10000 tables one by one ...
        all tables dropped in 32.692478 seconds
      creating 10000 tables
        all tables created in 3.458178 seconds
      dropping 10000 tables in batches by 100...
        all tables dropped in 3.28268 seconds
    
    So it's 33 seconds vs. 3.3 seconds, i.e. 10x speedup. On AWS we usually
    get larger differences, as we use larger shared buffers and the memory
    is significantly slower there.
    
    Regarding the other comments:
    
    > * As Robert commented, this patch adds DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList 
    > by copying code from DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers. Please refactor it
    > to avoid code duplication.
    
    Yes, I've merged the two functions, i.e. I've removed the original
    DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers and used the name for the new one (taking
    array instead of single relnode). Then I've modified the existing calls
    to to use
    
        DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(&relnode, 1)
    
    instead of the original one
    
        DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(relnode)
    
    Maybe this should be done for smgrdounlink/smgrdounlinkall too.
    
    > * In smgrDoPendingDeletes, you free srels explicitly. Can't we leave
    >  them to memory context stuff? Even it is required, at least pfree 
    > must be called in the case nrels == 0 too.
    
    Hmmm, right. Not sure which choice is better, so for now I've moved the
    pfree out of the 'if' block, so it's executed for 'nrels==0' too.
    
    > * In smgrDoPendingDeletes, the buffer srels is expanded in every 
    > iteration. This seems a bit inefficient. How about doubling the 
    > capacity when used it up? This requires additional variable, but 
    > reduces repalloc call considerably.
    
    Done, although I haven't seen any significant speed improvement.
    
    > * Just an idea, but if we can remove entries for local relations from
    > rnodes array before buffer loop in DropRelFileNodeAllBuffersList, 
    > following bsearch might be more efficient, though dropping many 
    > temporary tables might be rare.
    
    My reasoning, exactly. But maybe it should be done to keep the code
    clean, i.e. not letting temp tables to code paths where they are not
    expected.
    
    Tomas
    
  10. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Shigeru Hanada <shigeru.hanada@gmail.com> — 2012-12-06T04:47:22Z

    On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 4:36 AM, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    > Hi,
    >
    > I've prepared a slightly updated patch, based on the previous review.
    > See it attached.
    
    All changes in v3 patch seem good, however I found some places which requires
    cosmetic changes.  Please see attached v3.1 patch for those changes.
    
    >> Oops, you're right. I omitted 1-3 and 1-4 in actual measurement, but
    >> IMO loading data is necessary to fill the shared buffer up, because
    >> # of buffers which are deleted during COMMIT is major factor of this
    >> patch. And, yes, I verified that all shared buffers are used after
    >> all loading have been finished.
    >
    > I don't think it's an important factor, as the original code does this:
    >
    >   for (i = 0; i < NBuffers; i++)
    >   {
    >     volatile BufferDesc *bufHdr = &BufferDescriptors[i];
    >     ...
    >   }
    >
    > in the DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers. That loops through all shared buffers
    > no matter what, so IMHO the performance in this case depends on the
    > total size of the shared buffers. But maybe I'm missing something important.
    
    I worry the effect of "continue" in the loop to the performance.  If most of
    shared buffers are not used at the moment of DROP, the load of DROP doesn't
    contain the overhead of LockBufHdr and subsequent few lines.
    Do you expect such situation in your use cases?
    
    > I've done a simple benchmark on my laptop with 2GB shared buffers, it's
    > attached in the drop-test.py (it's a bit messy, but it works).
    [snip]
    > With those parameters, I got these numbers on the laptop:
    >
    >   creating 10000 tables
    >     all tables created in 3.298694 seconds
    >   dropping 10000 tables one by one ...
    >     all tables dropped in 32.692478 seconds
    >   creating 10000 tables
    >     all tables created in 3.458178 seconds
    >   dropping 10000 tables in batches by 100...
    >     all tables dropped in 3.28268 seconds
    >
    > So it's 33 seconds vs. 3.3 seconds, i.e. 10x speedup. On AWS we usually
    > get larger differences, as we use larger shared buffers and the memory
    > is significantly slower there.
    
    Do you have performance numbers of same test on not-patched PG?
    This patch aims to improve performance of bulk DROP, so 4th number in
    the result above should be compared to 4th number of not-patched PG?
    
    -- 
    Shigeru HANADA
    
  11. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2012-12-06T22:38:59Z

    On 6.12.2012 05:47, Shigeru Hanada wrote:
    > On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 4:36 AM, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    >> Hi,
    >>
    >> I've prepared a slightly updated patch, based on the previous review.
    >> See it attached.
    > 
    > All changes in v3 patch seem good, however I found some places which requires
    > cosmetic changes.  Please see attached v3.1 patch for those changes.
    
    OK, thanks!
    
    >>> Oops, you're right. I omitted 1-3 and 1-4 in actual measurement, but
    >>> IMO loading data is necessary to fill the shared buffer up, because
    >>> # of buffers which are deleted during COMMIT is major factor of this
    >>> patch. And, yes, I verified that all shared buffers are used after
    >>> all loading have been finished.
    >>
    >> I don't think it's an important factor, as the original code does this:
    >>
    >>   for (i = 0; i < NBuffers; i++)
    >>   {
    >>     volatile BufferDesc *bufHdr = &BufferDescriptors[i];
    >>     ...
    >>   }
    >>
    >> in the DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers. That loops through all shared buffers
    >> no matter what, so IMHO the performance in this case depends on the
    >> total size of the shared buffers. But maybe I'm missing something important.
    > 
    > I worry the effect of "continue" in the loop to the performance.  If most of
    > shared buffers are not used at the moment of DROP, the load of DROP doesn't
    > contain the overhead of LockBufHdr and subsequent few lines.
    > Do you expect such situation in your use cases?
    
    I still fail to see the issue here - can you give an example of when
    this would be a problem?
    
    The code was like this before the patch, I only replaced the simple
    comparison to a binary search ... Or do you think that this check means
    "if the buffer is empty"?
    
        /* buffer does not belong to any of the relations */
        if (rnode == NULL)
            continue;
    
    Because it does not - notice that the 'rnode' is a result of the binary
    search, not a direct check of the buffer.
    
    So the following few lines (lock and recheck) will be skipped either for
    unused buffers and buffers belonging to relations that are not being
    dropped.
    
    Maybe we could do a simple 'is the buffer empty' check before the
    bsearch call, but I don't expect that to happen very often in real world
    (the cache tends to be used).
    
    >> I've done a simple benchmark on my laptop with 2GB shared buffers, it's
    >> attached in the drop-test.py (it's a bit messy, but it works).
    > [snip]
    >> With those parameters, I got these numbers on the laptop:
    >>
    >>   creating 10000 tables
    >>     all tables created in 3.298694 seconds
    >>   dropping 10000 tables one by one ...
    >>     all tables dropped in 32.692478 seconds
    >>   creating 10000 tables
    >>     all tables created in 3.458178 seconds
    >>   dropping 10000 tables in batches by 100...
    >>     all tables dropped in 3.28268 seconds
    >>
    >> So it's 33 seconds vs. 3.3 seconds, i.e. 10x speedup. On AWS we usually
    >> get larger differences, as we use larger shared buffers and the memory
    >> is significantly slower there.
    > 
    > Do you have performance numbers of same test on not-patched PG?
    > This patch aims to improve performance of bulk DROP, so 4th number in
    > the result above should be compared to 4th number of not-patched PG?
    
    I've re-run the tests with the current patch on my home workstation, and
    the results are these (again 10k tables, dropped either one-by-one or in
    batches of 100).
    
    1) unpatched
    
    dropping one-by-one:        15.5 seconds
    dropping in batches of 100: 12.3 sec
    
    2) patched (v3.1)
    
    dropping one-by-one:        32.8 seconds
    dropping in batches of 100:  3.0 sec
    
    The problem here is that when dropping the tables one-by-one, the
    bsearch overhead is tremendous and significantly increases the runtime.
    I've done a simple check (if dropping a single table, use the original
    simple comparison) and I got this:
    
    3) patched (v3.2)
    
    dropping one-by-one:        16.0 seconds
    dropping in batches of 100:  3.3 sec
    
    i.e. the best of both. But it seems like an unnecessary complexity to me
    - if you need to drop a lot of tables you'll probably do that in a
    transaction anyway.
    
    Tomas
    
  12. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Andres Freund <andres@2ndquadrant.com> — 2012-12-08T14:26:08Z

    On 2012-12-06 23:38:59 +0100, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    > On 6.12.2012 05:47, Shigeru Hanada wrote:
    > >> I've done a simple benchmark on my laptop with 2GB shared buffers, it's
    > >> attached in the drop-test.py (it's a bit messy, but it works).
    > > [snip]
    > >> With those parameters, I got these numbers on the laptop:
    > >>
    > >>   creating 10000 tables
    > >>     all tables created in 3.298694 seconds
    > >>   dropping 10000 tables one by one ...
    > >>     all tables dropped in 32.692478 seconds
    > >>   creating 10000 tables
    > >>     all tables created in 3.458178 seconds
    > >>   dropping 10000 tables in batches by 100...
    > >>     all tables dropped in 3.28268 seconds
    > >>
    > >> So it's 33 seconds vs. 3.3 seconds, i.e. 10x speedup. On AWS we usually
    > >> get larger differences, as we use larger shared buffers and the memory
    > >> is significantly slower there.
    > >
    > > Do you have performance numbers of same test on not-patched PG?
    > > This patch aims to improve performance of bulk DROP, so 4th number in
    > > the result above should be compared to 4th number of not-patched PG?
    >
    > I've re-run the tests with the current patch on my home workstation, and
    > the results are these (again 10k tables, dropped either one-by-one or in
    > batches of 100).
    >
    > 1) unpatched
    >
    > dropping one-by-one:        15.5 seconds
    > dropping in batches of 100: 12.3 sec
    >
    > 2) patched (v3.1)
    >
    > dropping one-by-one:        32.8 seconds
    > dropping in batches of 100:  3.0 sec
    >
    > The problem here is that when dropping the tables one-by-one, the
    > bsearch overhead is tremendous and significantly increases the runtime.
    > I've done a simple check (if dropping a single table, use the original
    > simple comparison) and I got this:
    >
    > 3) patched (v3.2)
    >
    > dropping one-by-one:        16.0 seconds
    > dropping in batches of 100:  3.3 sec
    >
    > i.e. the best of both. But it seems like an unnecessary complexity to me
    > - if you need to drop a lot of tables you'll probably do that in a
    > transaction anyway.
    >
    
    Imo that's still a pretty bad performance difference. And your
    single-table optimization will probably fall short as soon as the table
    has indexes and/or a toast table...
    
    > +
    > +/*
    > + * Used to sort relfilenode array (ordered by [relnode, dbnode, spcnode]), so
    > + * that it's suitable for bsearch.
    > + */
    > +static int
    > +rnode_comparator(const void * p1, const void * p2)
    > +{
    > +	RelFileNodeBackend n1 = * (RelFileNodeBackend *) p1;
    > +	RelFileNodeBackend n2 = * (RelFileNodeBackend *) p2;
    > +
    > +	if (n1.node.relNode < n2.node.relNode)
    > +		return -1;
    > +	else if (n1.node.relNode > n2.node.relNode)
    > +		return 1;
    > +
    > +	if (n1.node.dbNode < n2.node.dbNode)
    > +		return -1;
    > +	else if (n1.node.dbNode > n2.node.dbNode)
    > +		return 1;
    > +
    > +	if (n1.node.spcNode < n2.node.spcNode)
    > +		return -1;
    > +	else if (n1.node.spcNode > n2.node.spcNode)
    > +		return 1;
    > +	else
    > +		return 0;
    > +}
    
    ISTM that this whole comparator could be replaced by memcmp(). That
    could quite possibly lower the overhead of the bsearch() in simple
    cases. We already rely on the fact that RelFileNode's have no padding
    atm (c.f. buf_internal.h), so a memcmp() seems fine to me.
    
    Greetings,
    
    Andres Freund
    
    --
     Andres Freund	                   http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
     PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services
    
    
    
  13. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2012-12-08T14:49:17Z

    On 8.12.2012 15:26, Andres Freund wrote:
    > On 2012-12-06 23:38:59 +0100, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    >> I've re-run the tests with the current patch on my home workstation, and
    >> the results are these (again 10k tables, dropped either one-by-one or in
    >> batches of 100).
    >>
    >> 1) unpatched
    >>
    >> dropping one-by-one:        15.5 seconds
    >> dropping in batches of 100: 12.3 sec
    >>
    >> 2) patched (v3.1)
    >>
    >> dropping one-by-one:        32.8 seconds
    >> dropping in batches of 100:  3.0 sec
    >>
    >> The problem here is that when dropping the tables one-by-one, the
    >> bsearch overhead is tremendous and significantly increases the runtime.
    >> I've done a simple check (if dropping a single table, use the original
    >> simple comparison) and I got this:
    >>
    >> 3) patched (v3.2)
    >>
    >> dropping one-by-one:        16.0 seconds
    >> dropping in batches of 100:  3.3 sec
    >>
    >> i.e. the best of both. But it seems like an unnecessary complexity to me
    >> - if you need to drop a lot of tables you'll probably do that in a
    >> transaction anyway.
    >>
    > 
    > Imo that's still a pretty bad performance difference. And your
    > single-table optimization will probably fall short as soon as the table
    > has indexes and/or a toast table...
    
    Why? I haven't checked the code but either those objects are droppped
    one-by-one (which seems unlikely) or they're added to the pending list
    and then the new code will kick in, making it actually faster.
    
    Yes, the original code might be faster even for 2 or 3 objects, but I
    can't think of a simple solution to fix this, given that it really
    depends on CPU/RAM speed and shared_buffers size.
    
    >> +
    >> +/*
    >> + * Used to sort relfilenode array (ordered by [relnode, dbnode, spcnode]), so
    >> + * that it's suitable for bsearch.
    >> + */
    >> +static int
    >> +rnode_comparator(const void * p1, const void * p2)
    >> +{
    >> +	RelFileNodeBackend n1 = * (RelFileNodeBackend *) p1;
    >> +	RelFileNodeBackend n2 = * (RelFileNodeBackend *) p2;
    >> +
    >> +	if (n1.node.relNode < n2.node.relNode)
    >> +		return -1;
    >> +	else if (n1.node.relNode > n2.node.relNode)
    >> +		return 1;
    >> +
    >> +	if (n1.node.dbNode < n2.node.dbNode)
    >> +		return -1;
    >> +	else if (n1.node.dbNode > n2.node.dbNode)
    >> +		return 1;
    >> +
    >> +	if (n1.node.spcNode < n2.node.spcNode)
    >> +		return -1;
    >> +	else if (n1.node.spcNode > n2.node.spcNode)
    >> +		return 1;
    >> +	else
    >> +		return 0;
    >> +}
    > 
    > ISTM that this whole comparator could be replaced by memcmp(). That
    > could quite possibly lower the overhead of the bsearch() in simple
    > cases. We already rely on the fact that RelFileNode's have no padding
    > atm (c.f. buf_internal.h), so a memcmp() seems fine to me.
    
    Good point, I'll try that. The original code used a macro that simply
    compared the fields and I copied that logic, but if we can remove the
    code ...
    
    Thanks for the review!
    
    Tomas
    
    
    
  14. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2012-12-08T16:07:38Z

    On 8.12.2012 15:49, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    > On 8.12.2012 15:26, Andres Freund wrote:
    >> On 2012-12-06 23:38:59 +0100, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    >>> I've re-run the tests with the current patch on my home workstation, and
    >>> the results are these (again 10k tables, dropped either one-by-one or in
    >>> batches of 100).
    >>>
    >>> 1) unpatched
    >>>
    >>> dropping one-by-one:        15.5 seconds
    >>> dropping in batches of 100: 12.3 sec
    >>>
    >>> 2) patched (v3.1)
    >>>
    >>> dropping one-by-one:        32.8 seconds
    >>> dropping in batches of 100:  3.0 sec
    >>>
    >>> The problem here is that when dropping the tables one-by-one, the
    >>> bsearch overhead is tremendous and significantly increases the runtime.
    >>> I've done a simple check (if dropping a single table, use the original
    >>> simple comparison) and I got this:
    >>>
    >>> 3) patched (v3.2)
    >>>
    >>> dropping one-by-one:        16.0 seconds
    >>> dropping in batches of 100:  3.3 sec
    >>>
    >>> i.e. the best of both. But it seems like an unnecessary complexity to me
    >>> - if you need to drop a lot of tables you'll probably do that in a
    >>> transaction anyway.
    >>>
    >>
    >> Imo that's still a pretty bad performance difference. And your
    >> single-table optimization will probably fall short as soon as the table
    >> has indexes and/or a toast table...
    > 
    > Why? I haven't checked the code but either those objects are droppped
    > one-by-one (which seems unlikely) or they're added to the pending list
    > and then the new code will kick in, making it actually faster.
    > 
    > Yes, the original code might be faster even for 2 or 3 objects, but I
    > can't think of a simple solution to fix this, given that it really
    > depends on CPU/RAM speed and shared_buffers size.
    
    I've done some test and yes - once there are other objects the
    optimization falls short. For example for tables with one index, it
    looks like this:
    
      1) unpatched
    
      one by one:  28.9 s
      100 batches: 23.9 s
    
      2) patched
    
      one by one:  44.1 s
      100 batches:  4.7 s
    
    So the patched code is by about 50% slower, but this difference quickly
    disappears with the number of indexes / toast tables etc.
    
    I see this as an argument AGAINST such special-case optimization. My
    reasoning is this:
    
    * This difference is significant only if you're dropping a table with
      low number of indexes / toast tables. In reality this is not going to
      be very frequent.
    
    * If you're dropping a single table, it really does not matter - the
      difference will be like 100 ms vs. 200 ms or something like that.
    
    * If you're dropping a lot of tables, you should do than in a
      transaction anyway, or you should be aware that doing that in a
      transaction will be faster (we can add this info into DROP TABLE
      docs).
    
    IMHO this is similar to doing a lot of INSERTs - doing all of them in a
    single transaction is faster. The possibility that someone needs to drop
    a lot of tables in separate transactions exists in theory, but I don't
    know of a realistic real-world usage.
    
    So I'd vote to ditch that special case optimization.
    
    >>> +
    >>> +/*
    >>> + * Used to sort relfilenode array (ordered by [relnode, dbnode, spcnode]), so
    >>> + * that it's suitable for bsearch.
    >>> + */
    >>> +static int
    >>> +rnode_comparator(const void * p1, const void * p2)
    >>> +{
    >>> +	RelFileNodeBackend n1 = * (RelFileNodeBackend *) p1;
    >>> +	RelFileNodeBackend n2 = * (RelFileNodeBackend *) p2;
    >>> +
    >>> +	if (n1.node.relNode < n2.node.relNode)
    >>> +		return -1;
    >>> +	else if (n1.node.relNode > n2.node.relNode)
    >>> +		return 1;
    >>> +
    >>> +	if (n1.node.dbNode < n2.node.dbNode)
    >>> +		return -1;
    >>> +	else if (n1.node.dbNode > n2.node.dbNode)
    >>> +		return 1;
    >>> +
    >>> +	if (n1.node.spcNode < n2.node.spcNode)
    >>> +		return -1;
    >>> +	else if (n1.node.spcNode > n2.node.spcNode)
    >>> +		return 1;
    >>> +	else
    >>> +		return 0;
    >>> +}
    >>
    >> ISTM that this whole comparator could be replaced by memcmp(). That
    >> could quite possibly lower the overhead of the bsearch() in simple
    >> cases. We already rely on the fact that RelFileNode's have no padding
    >> atm (c.f. buf_internal.h), so a memcmp() seems fine to me.
    > 
    > Good point, I'll try that. The original code used a macro that simply
    > compared the fields and I copied that logic, but if we can remove the
    > code ...
    
    Hmmm, I've replaced the comparator with this one:
    
        static int
        rnode_comparator(const void * p1, const void * p2)
        {
                return memcmp(p1, p2, sizeof(RelFileNode));
        }
    
    and while it's not significantly faster (actually it's often a bit
    slower than the original comparator), it's a much simpler code.
    
    Tomas
    
    
    
  15. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Shigeru Hanada <shigeru.hanada@gmail.com> — 2012-12-10T05:27:40Z

    On Sun, Dec 9, 2012 at 1:07 AM, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    > * If you're dropping a single table, it really does not matter - the
    >   difference will be like 100 ms vs. 200 ms or something like that.
    
    Did you try dropping 10,000 tables in 100 batches, as same as previous post?
    If so the overhead introduced by the patch is only 1.52ms per table.
    It seems acceptable to me.
    
    > So I'd vote to ditch that special case optimization.
    
    +1.  It seems very difficult to determine reasonable threshold of such
    kind of optimization.  As described above, the overhead seems enough
    little, so using bsearch in any case seems fine.
    
    Besides, v3.2 patch needs some more fixes, for minor issues.
    
    * Opening curly bracket of if/for/while/etc. should be in the next
    line, like this:
        if (foo == bar) /* { <= not here */
        {
            ...
        }
    * Use hard-tab instead of white-spaces to indent variable name in declarations.
      For these two issues, please see the page below:
      http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.2/static/source-format.html
    
    * PostgreSQL allows C89 features, so we can't use variable length array.
    * Contains unintentional blank lines?
    
    Please see attached patch for details of fixes above.
    
    -- 
    Shigeru HANADA
    
  16. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Andres Freund <andres@2ndquadrant.com> — 2012-12-10T15:38:01Z

    On 2012-12-08 17:07:38 +0100, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    > On 8.12.2012 15:49, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    > > On 8.12.2012 15:26, Andres Freund wrote:
    > >> On 2012-12-06 23:38:59 +0100, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    > >>> I've re-run the tests with the current patch on my home workstation, and
    > >>> the results are these (again 10k tables, dropped either one-by-one or in
    > >>> batches of 100).
    > >>>
    > >>> 1) unpatched
    > >>>
    > >>> dropping one-by-one:        15.5 seconds
    > >>> dropping in batches of 100: 12.3 sec
    > >>>
    > >>> 2) patched (v3.1)
    > >>>
    > >>> dropping one-by-one:        32.8 seconds
    > >>> dropping in batches of 100:  3.0 sec
    > >>>
    > >>> The problem here is that when dropping the tables one-by-one, the
    > >>> bsearch overhead is tremendous and significantly increases the runtime.
    > >>> I've done a simple check (if dropping a single table, use the original
    > >>> simple comparison) and I got this:
    > >>>
    > >>> 3) patched (v3.2)
    > >>>
    > >>> dropping one-by-one:        16.0 seconds
    > >>> dropping in batches of 100:  3.3 sec
    > >>>
    > >>> i.e. the best of both. But it seems like an unnecessary complexity to me
    > >>> - if you need to drop a lot of tables you'll probably do that in a
    > >>> transaction anyway.
    > >>>
    > >>
    > >> Imo that's still a pretty bad performance difference. And your
    > >> single-table optimization will probably fall short as soon as the table
    > >> has indexes and/or a toast table...
    > >
    > > Why? I haven't checked the code but either those objects are droppped
    > > one-by-one (which seems unlikely) or they're added to the pending list
    > > and then the new code will kick in, making it actually faster.
    > >
    > > Yes, the original code might be faster even for 2 or 3 objects, but I
    > > can't think of a simple solution to fix this, given that it really
    > > depends on CPU/RAM speed and shared_buffers size.
    >
    > I've done some test and yes - once there are other objects the
    > optimization falls short. For example for tables with one index, it
    > looks like this:
    >
    >   1) unpatched
    >
    >   one by one:  28.9 s
    >   100 batches: 23.9 s
    >
    >   2) patched
    >
    >   one by one:  44.1 s
    >   100 batches:  4.7 s
    >
    > So the patched code is by about 50% slower, but this difference quickly
    > disappears with the number of indexes / toast tables etc.
    >
    > I see this as an argument AGAINST such special-case optimization. My
    > reasoning is this:
    >
    > * This difference is significant only if you're dropping a table with
    >   low number of indexes / toast tables. In reality this is not going to
    >   be very frequent.
    >
    > * If you're dropping a single table, it really does not matter - the
    >   difference will be like 100 ms vs. 200 ms or something like that.
    
    I don't particularly buy that argument. There are good reasons (like
    avoiding deadlocks, long transactions) to drop multiple tables
    in individual transactions.
    Not that I have a good plan to how to work around that though :(
    
    Greetings,
    
    Andres Freund
    
    --
     Andres Freund	                   http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
     PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services
    
    
    
  17. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2012-12-10T17:24:27Z

    Dne 10.12.2012 16:38, Andres Freund napsal:
    > On 2012-12-08 17:07:38 +0100, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    >> I've done some test and yes - once there are other objects the
    >> optimization falls short. For example for tables with one index, it
    >> looks like this:
    >>
    >>   1) unpatched
    >>
    >>   one by one:  28.9 s
    >>   100 batches: 23.9 s
    >>
    >>   2) patched
    >>
    >>   one by one:  44.1 s
    >>   100 batches:  4.7 s
    >>
    >> So the patched code is by about 50% slower, but this difference 
    >> quickly
    >> disappears with the number of indexes / toast tables etc.
    >>
    >> I see this as an argument AGAINST such special-case optimization. My
    >> reasoning is this:
    >>
    >> * This difference is significant only if you're dropping a table 
    >> with
    >>   low number of indexes / toast tables. In reality this is not going 
    >> to
    >>   be very frequent.
    >>
    >> * If you're dropping a single table, it really does not matter - the
    >>   difference will be like 100 ms vs. 200 ms or something like that.
    >
    > I don't particularly buy that argument. There are good reasons (like
    > avoiding deadlocks, long transactions) to drop multiple tables
    > in individual transactions.
    > Not that I have a good plan to how to work around that though :(
    
    Yeah, if you need to drop the tables one by one for some reason, you
    can't get rid of the overhead this way :-(
    
    OTOH in the example above the overhead is ~50%, i.e. 1.5ms / table with 
    a
    single index. Each such associated relation (index, TOAST table, ...) 
    means
    a relation that needs to be dropped and on my machine, once I reach ~5
    relations there's almost no difference as the overhead is balanced by 
    the
    gains.
    
    Not sure how to fix that in an elegant way, though :-(
    
    Tomas
    
    
    
  18. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2012-12-16T23:31:00Z

    Hi,
    
    I've updated the patch to include the optimization described in the
    previous post, i.e. if the number of relations is below a certain
    threshold, use a simple for loop, for large numbers of relations use
    bsearch calls.
    
    This is done by a new constant BSEARCH_LIMIT, which is set to 10 in the
    patch. Then I've modified the 'drop-test' script to take yet another
    argument - number of indexes for each table. So for example this
    
    ./drop-test.py 10000 100 3 'dbname=test'
    
    means "create 10000 tables, 3 indexes for each of them, and then drop
    them in batches of 100 tables."
    
    Then I've run the test with 0, 1, 2, ... 11 indexes for each table for
    
    (a) unpatched HEAD
    (b) patch v3.1 (without the optimization)
    (c) patch v3.3 (with BSEARCH_LIMIT=10)
    
    and I got these results:
    
    
    1) dropping one-by-one
    ----------------------
    
    This is the really interesting part - the issue with the v3.1 is that
    for a single table, it's ~2x slower than unpatched PostgreSQL.
    
                 0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7    8    9   10   11
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    unpatched   16  28  40  52  63  75  87  99  110  121  135  147
         v3.1   33  43  46  56  58  60  63  72   75   76   79   80
         v3.3   16  20  23  25  29  33  36  40   44   47   79   82
    
    The values are durations in seconds, rounded to integer values. I've run
    the test repeatedly and there's very small variance in the numbers.
    
    The v3.3 improves that and it's actually even faster than unpatched
    PostgreSQL. How can this happen? I believe it's because the code is
    rewritten from
    
       for each relation (r) in the drop list
          DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers (r)
             for each shared buffer
                check and invalidate
    
    to
    
       copy the relations from drop list to array (a)
       DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(a)
          for each shared buffer
              for each relation (r) in the array
                  check and invalidate
    
    At least that's the only explanation I was able to come up with.
    
    Yet another interesting observation is that even the v3.1 is about as
    fast as the unpatched code once there are 3 or more indexes (or TOAST
    tables).
    
    So my opinion is that the optimizated patch works as expected, and that
    even without the optimization the performance would be acceptable for
    most real-world cases.
    
    2) dropping in transaction
    --------------------------
    
    This is mostly to verify that the code did not break anything, because
    the optimization should not kick-in in this case at all. And that seems
    to be the case:
    
                 0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7    8    9   10   11
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    unpatched   13  24  35  46  58  69  81  92  103  115  127  139
         v3.1    3   5   7   8  10  12  14  15   16   18   20   21
         v3.3    3   4   6   7   8  10  11  13   14   15   18   20
    
    The differences between v3.1 and v3.3 are mostly due to rounding etc.
    
    
    Attached is the v3.3 patch and the testing script I've been using for
    the tests above. Feel free to run the tests on your hardware, with your
    hardware, shared buffers size etc. I've run that on a 4-core i5-2500 CPU
    with 2GB shared buffers.
    
    Tomas
    
    
    
  19. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Andres Freund <andres@2ndquadrant.com> — 2012-12-19T01:18:14Z

    On 2012-12-17 00:31:00 +0100, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    > I've updated the patch to include the optimization described in the
    > previous post, i.e. if the number of relations is below a certain
    > threshold, use a simple for loop, for large numbers of relations use
    > bsearch calls.
    >
    > This is done by a new constant BSEARCH_LIMIT, which is set to 10 in the
    > patch. Then I've modified the 'drop-test' script to take yet another
    > argument - number of indexes for each table. So for example this
    >
    > ./drop-test.py 10000 100 3 'dbname=test'
    >
    > means "create 10000 tables, 3 indexes for each of them, and then drop
    > them in batches of 100 tables."
    >
    > Then I've run the test with 0, 1, 2, ... 11 indexes for each table for
    >
    > (a) unpatched HEAD
    > (b) patch v3.1 (without the optimization)
    > (c) patch v3.3 (with BSEARCH_LIMIT=10)
    >
    > and I got these results:
    
    Nice work!
    
    > 1) dropping one-by-one
    > ----------------------
    >
    > This is the really interesting part - the issue with the v3.1 is that
    > for a single table, it's ~2x slower than unpatched PostgreSQL.
    >
    >              0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7    8    9   10   11
    > --------------------------------------------------------------
    > unpatched   16  28  40  52  63  75  87  99  110  121  135  147
    >      v3.1   33  43  46  56  58  60  63  72   75   76   79   80
    >      v3.3   16  20  23  25  29  33  36  40   44   47   79   82
    >
    > The values are durations in seconds, rounded to integer values. I've run
    > the test repeatedly and there's very small variance in the numbers.
    >
    > The v3.3 improves that and it's actually even faster than unpatched
    > PostgreSQL. How can this happen? I believe it's because the code is
    > rewritten from
    >
    >    for each relation (r) in the drop list
    >       DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers (r)
    >          for each shared buffer
    >             check and invalidate
    >
    > to
    >
    >    copy the relations from drop list to array (a)
    >    DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(a)
    >       for each shared buffer
    >           for each relation (r) in the array
    >               check and invalidate
    >
    > At least that's the only explanation I was able to come up with.
    
    That seems like a rather sensible explanation. The earlier algorithm
    iterated over shared buffers multiple times which is the expensive thing
    here, the new version doesn't so its sensible that its faster as long as
    the comparison method for checking whether a buffer belongs to relation
    is suitably fast.
    
    > Yet another interesting observation is that even the v3.1 is about as
    > fast as the unpatched code once there are 3 or more indexes (or TOAST
    > tables).
    >
    > So my opinion is that the optimizated patch works as expected, and that
    > even without the optimization the performance would be acceptable for
    > most real-world cases.
    
    I think except of the temp buffer issue mentioned below its ready.
    
    > -DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(RelFileNodeBackend rnode)
    > +DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(RelFileNodeBackend * rnodes, int nnodes)
    >  {
    > -	int			i;
    > +	int         i, j;
    > +
    > +	/* sort the list of rnodes */
    > +	pg_qsort(rnodes, nnodes, sizeof(RelFileNodeBackend), rnode_comparator);
    >
    >  	/* If it's a local relation, it's localbuf.c's problem. */
    > -	if (RelFileNodeBackendIsTemp(rnode))
    > +	for (i = 0; i < nnodes; i++)
    >  	{
    > -		if (rnode.backend == MyBackendId)
    > -			DropRelFileNodeAllLocalBuffers(rnode.node);
    > -		return;
    > +		if (RelFileNodeBackendIsTemp(rnodes[i]))
    > +		{
    > +			if (rnodes[i].backend == MyBackendId)
    > +				DropRelFileNodeAllLocalBuffers(rnodes[i].node);
    > +		}
    >  	}
    
    While you deal with local buffers here you don't anymore in the big loop
    over shared buffers. That wasn't needed earlier since we just returned
    after noticing we have local relation, but thats not the case anymore.
    
    >  	for (i = 0; i < NBuffers; i++)
    >  	{
    > +		RelFileNodeBackend *rnode = NULL;
    >  		volatile BufferDesc *bufHdr = &BufferDescriptors[i];
    > -
    > +
    >  		/*
    >  		 * As in DropRelFileNodeBuffers, an unlocked precheck should be safe
    >  		 * and saves some cycles.
    >  		 */
    > -		if (!RelFileNodeEquals(bufHdr->tag.rnode, rnode.node))
    > +
    > +		/*
    > +		 * For low number of relations to drop just use a simple walk through,
    > +		 * to save the bsearch overhead. The BSEARCH_LIMIT is rather a guess
    > +		 * than a exactly determined value, as it depends on many factors (CPU
    > +		 * and RAM speeds, amount of shared buffers etc.).
    > +		 */
    > +		if (nnodes <= BSEARCH_LIMIT)
    
    I think thats a sensible plan. It makes sense that for a small number of
    relations a sequential scan of the rnodes array is faster than a bsearch
    and 10 sounds like a good value although I would guess the optimal value
    is slightly higher on most machines. But if it works fine without
    regressions thats pretty good...
    
    > +
    > +/*
    > + * Used to sort relfilenode array (ordered by [relnode, dbnode, spcnode]), so
    > + * that it's suitable for bsearch.
    > + */
    > +static int
    > +rnode_comparator(const void * p1, const void * p2)
    > +{
    > +	RelFileNodeBackend n1 = * (RelFileNodeBackend *) p1;
    > +	RelFileNodeBackend n2 = * (RelFileNodeBackend *) p2;
    > +
    > +	if (n1.node.relNode < n2.node.relNode)
    > +		return -1;
    > +	else if (n1.node.relNode > n2.node.relNode)
    > +		return 1;
    > +
    > +	if (n1.node.dbNode < n2.node.dbNode)
    > +		return -1;
    > +	else if (n1.node.dbNode > n2.node.dbNode)
    > +		return 1;
    > +
    > +	if (n1.node.spcNode < n2.node.spcNode)
    > +		return -1;
    > +	else if (n1.node.spcNode > n2.node.spcNode)
    > +		return 1;
    > +	else
    > +		return 0;
    > +}
    
    Still surprised this is supposed to be faster than a memcmp, but as you
    seem to have measured it earlier..
    
    > +void smgrdounlinkall(SMgrRelation * rels, int nrels, bool isRedo)
    > +{
    > +	int i = 0;
    > +	RelFileNodeBackend *rnodes;
    > +	ForkNumber  forknum;
    > +
    > +	/* initialize an array which contains all relations to be dropped */
    > +	rnodes = palloc(sizeof(RelFileNodeBackend) * nrels);
    > +	for (i = 0; i < nrels; i++)
    > +	{
    > +		RelFileNodeBackend rnode = rels[i]->smgr_rnode;
    > +		int			which = rels[i]->smgr_which;
    > +
    > +		rnodes[i] = rnode;
    > +
    > +		/* Close the forks at smgr level */
    > +		for (forknum = 0; forknum <= MAX_FORKNUM; forknum++)
    > +			(*(smgrsw[which].smgr_close)) (rels[i], forknum);
    > +	}
    > +
    > +	/*
    > +	 * Get rid of any remaining buffers for the relation.  bufmgr will just
    > +	 * drop them without bothering to write the contents.
    > +	 */
    > +	DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(rnodes, nrels);
    
    I think it might be a good idea to handle temp relations on/buffers on
    this level instead of trying to put it into
    DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers. Would also allow you to only build an array
    of RelFileNode's instead of RelFileNodeBackend's which might make it
    slightl faster.
    
    > +	/*
    > +	 * It'd be nice to tell the stats collector to forget it immediately, too.
    > +	 * But we can't because we don't know the OID (and in cases involving
    > +	 * relfilenode swaps, it's not always clear which table OID to forget,
    > +	 * anyway).
    > +	 */
    
    This and at least one other comment seems to be in too many locations
    now.
    
    Greetings,
    
    Andres Freund
    
    --
     Andres Freund	                   http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
     PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services
    
    
    
  20. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2012-12-20T01:54:48Z

    On 19.12.2012 02:18, Andres Freund wrote:
    > On 2012-12-17 00:31:00 +0100, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    > 
    > I think except of the temp buffer issue mentioned below its ready.
    > 
    >> -DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(RelFileNodeBackend rnode)
    >> +DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(RelFileNodeBackend * rnodes, int nnodes)
    >>  {
    >> -	int			i;
    >> +	int         i, j;
    >> +
    >> +	/* sort the list of rnodes */
    >> +	pg_qsort(rnodes, nnodes, sizeof(RelFileNodeBackend), rnode_comparator);
    >>
    >>  	/* If it's a local relation, it's localbuf.c's problem. */
    >> -	if (RelFileNodeBackendIsTemp(rnode))
    >> +	for (i = 0; i < nnodes; i++)
    >>  	{
    >> -		if (rnode.backend == MyBackendId)
    >> -			DropRelFileNodeAllLocalBuffers(rnode.node);
    >> -		return;
    >> +		if (RelFileNodeBackendIsTemp(rnodes[i]))
    >> +		{
    >> +			if (rnodes[i].backend == MyBackendId)
    >> +				DropRelFileNodeAllLocalBuffers(rnodes[i].node);
    >> +		}
    >>  	}
    > 
    > While you deal with local buffers here you don't anymore in the big loop
    > over shared buffers. That wasn't needed earlier since we just returned
    > after noticing we have local relation, but thats not the case anymore.
    
    Hmm, but that would require us to handle the temp relations explicitly
    wherever we call DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers. Currently there are two such
    places - smgrdounlink() and smgrdounlinkall().
    
    By placing it into DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers() this code is shared and I
    think it's a good thing.
    
    But that does not mean the code is perfect - it was based on the
    assumption that if there's a mix of temp and regular relations, the temp
    relations will be handled in the first part and the rest in the second one.
    
    Maybe it'd be better to improve it so that the temp relations are
    removed from the array after the first part (and skip the second one if
    there are no remaining relations).
    
    > 
    >>  	for (i = 0; i < NBuffers; i++)
    >>  	{
    >> +		RelFileNodeBackend *rnode = NULL;
    >>  		volatile BufferDesc *bufHdr = &BufferDescriptors[i];
    >> -
    >> +
    >>  		/*
    >>  		 * As in DropRelFileNodeBuffers, an unlocked precheck should be safe
    >>  		 * and saves some cycles.
    >>  		 */
    >> -		if (!RelFileNodeEquals(bufHdr->tag.rnode, rnode.node))
    >> +
    >> +		/*
    >> +		 * For low number of relations to drop just use a simple walk through,
    >> +		 * to save the bsearch overhead. The BSEARCH_LIMIT is rather a guess
    >> +		 * than a exactly determined value, as it depends on many factors (CPU
    >> +		 * and RAM speeds, amount of shared buffers etc.).
    >> +		 */
    >> +		if (nnodes <= BSEARCH_LIMIT)
    > 
    > I think thats a sensible plan. It makes sense that for a small number of
    > relations a sequential scan of the rnodes array is faster than a bsearch
    > and 10 sounds like a good value although I would guess the optimal value
    > is slightly higher on most machines. But if it works fine without
    > regressions thats pretty good...
    
    I think it's pointless to look for the optimal value in this case, given
    on how many factors it depends. We could use 20 instead of 10, but I
    wouldn't go higher probably.
    
    >> +
    >> +/*
    >> + * Used to sort relfilenode array (ordered by [relnode, dbnode, spcnode]), so
    >> + * that it's suitable for bsearch.
    >> + */
    >> +static int
    >> +rnode_comparator(const void * p1, const void * p2)
    >> +{
    >> +	RelFileNodeBackend n1 = * (RelFileNodeBackend *) p1;
    >> +	RelFileNodeBackend n2 = * (RelFileNodeBackend *) p2;
    >> +
    >> +	if (n1.node.relNode < n2.node.relNode)
    >> +		return -1;
    >> +	else if (n1.node.relNode > n2.node.relNode)
    >> +		return 1;
    >> +
    >> +	if (n1.node.dbNode < n2.node.dbNode)
    >> +		return -1;
    >> +	else if (n1.node.dbNode > n2.node.dbNode)
    >> +		return 1;
    >> +
    >> +	if (n1.node.spcNode < n2.node.spcNode)
    >> +		return -1;
    >> +	else if (n1.node.spcNode > n2.node.spcNode)
    >> +		return 1;
    >> +	else
    >> +		return 0;
    >> +}
    > 
    > Still surprised this is supposed to be faster than a memcmp, but as you
    > seem to have measured it earlier..
    
    It surprised me too. These are the numbers with the current patch:
    
    1) one by one
    =============
              0    2    4    6    8    10   12   14   16   18   20
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    current  15   22   28   34   41    75   77   82   92   99  106
    memcmp   16   23   29   36   44   122  125  128  153  154  158
    
    Until the number of indexes reaches ~10, the numbers are almost exactly
    the same. Then the bsearch branch kicks in and it's clear how much
    slower the memcmp comparator is.
    
    2) batches of 100
    =================
              0    2    4    6    8    10   12   14   16   18   20
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    current   3    5    8   10   12    15   17   21   23   27   31
    memcmp    4    7   10   13   16    19   22   28   30   32   36
    
    Here the difference is much smaller, but even here the memcmp is
    consistently a bit slower.
    
    
    My theory is that while the current comparator starts with the most
    variable part (relation OID), and thus usually starts after the
    comparing the first 4B, the memcmp starts from the other end (tablespace
    and database) and therefore needs to compare more data.
    
    >> +void smgrdounlinkall(SMgrRelation * rels, int nrels, bool isRedo)
    >> +{
    >> +	int i = 0;
    >> +	RelFileNodeBackend *rnodes;
    >> +	ForkNumber  forknum;
    >> +
    >> +	/* initialize an array which contains all relations to be dropped */
    >> +	rnodes = palloc(sizeof(RelFileNodeBackend) * nrels);
    >> +	for (i = 0; i < nrels; i++)
    >> +	{
    >> +		RelFileNodeBackend rnode = rels[i]->smgr_rnode;
    >> +		int			which = rels[i]->smgr_which;
    >> +
    >> +		rnodes[i] = rnode;
    >> +
    >> +		/* Close the forks at smgr level */
    >> +		for (forknum = 0; forknum <= MAX_FORKNUM; forknum++)
    >> +			(*(smgrsw[which].smgr_close)) (rels[i], forknum);
    >> +	}
    >> +
    >> +	/*
    >> +	 * Get rid of any remaining buffers for the relation.  bufmgr will just
    >> +	 * drop them without bothering to write the contents.
    >> +	 */
    >> +	DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(rnodes, nrels);
    > 
    > I think it might be a good idea to handle temp relations on/buffers on
    > this level instead of trying to put it into
    > DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers. Would also allow you to only build an array
    > of RelFileNode's instead of RelFileNodeBackend's which might make it
    > slightl faster.
    
    Hmmm, sadly that'd require duplication of code because it needs to be
    done in smgrdounlink too.
    
    > 
    >> +	/*
    >> +	 * It'd be nice to tell the stats collector to forget it immediately, too.
    >> +	 * But we can't because we don't know the OID (and in cases involving
    >> +	 * relfilenode swaps, it's not always clear which table OID to forget,
    >> +	 * anyway).
    >> +	 */
    > 
    > This and at least one other comment seems to be in too many locations
    > now.
    
    I see it in three places - smgrdounlink, smgrdounlinkall and
    smgrdounlinkfork. Which ones you consider superfluous? I think it's
    appropriate to keep them in all three places.
    
    Tomas
    
    
    
  21. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Andres Freund <andres@2ndquadrant.com> — 2012-12-20T11:33:00Z

    On 2012-12-20 02:54:48 +0100, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    > On 19.12.2012 02:18, Andres Freund wrote:
    > > On 2012-12-17 00:31:00 +0100, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    > >
    > > I think except of the temp buffer issue mentioned below its ready.
    > >
    > >> -DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(RelFileNodeBackend rnode)
    > >> +DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(RelFileNodeBackend * rnodes, int nnodes)
    > >>  {
    > >> -	int			i;
    > >> +	int         i, j;
    > >> +
    > >> +	/* sort the list of rnodes */
    > >> +	pg_qsort(rnodes, nnodes, sizeof(RelFileNodeBackend), rnode_comparator);
    > >>
    > >>  	/* If it's a local relation, it's localbuf.c's problem. */
    > >> -	if (RelFileNodeBackendIsTemp(rnode))
    > >> +	for (i = 0; i < nnodes; i++)
    > >>  	{
    > >> -		if (rnode.backend == MyBackendId)
    > >> -			DropRelFileNodeAllLocalBuffers(rnode.node);
    > >> -		return;
    > >> +		if (RelFileNodeBackendIsTemp(rnodes[i]))
    > >> +		{
    > >> +			if (rnodes[i].backend == MyBackendId)
    > >> +				DropRelFileNodeAllLocalBuffers(rnodes[i].node);
    > >> +		}
    > >>  	}
    > >
    > > While you deal with local buffers here you don't anymore in the big loop
    > > over shared buffers. That wasn't needed earlier since we just returned
    > > after noticing we have local relation, but thats not the case anymore.
    >
    > Hmm, but that would require us to handle the temp relations explicitly
    > wherever we call DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers. Currently there are two such
    > places - smgrdounlink() and smgrdounlinkall().
    >
    > By placing it into DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers() this code is shared and I
    > think it's a good thing.
    >
    > But that does not mean the code is perfect - it was based on the
    > assumption that if there's a mix of temp and regular relations, the temp
    > relations will be handled in the first part and the rest in the second one.
    >
    > Maybe it'd be better to improve it so that the temp relations are
    > removed from the array after the first part (and skip the second one if
    > there are no remaining relations).
    
    The problem is that afaik without the backend-local part a temporary
    relation could match the same relfilenode as a "full" relation which
    would have pretty bad consequences.
    
    > > Still surprised this is supposed to be faster than a memcmp, but as you
    > > seem to have measured it earlier..
    >
    > It surprised me too. These are the numbers with the current patch:
    >
    > 1) one by one
    > =============
    >           0    2    4    6    8    10   12   14   16   18   20
    > --------------------------------------------------------------
    > current  15   22   28   34   41    75   77   82   92   99  106
    > memcmp   16   23   29   36   44   122  125  128  153  154  158
    >
    > Until the number of indexes reaches ~10, the numbers are almost exactly
    > the same. Then the bsearch branch kicks in and it's clear how much
    > slower the memcmp comparator is.
    >
    > 2) batches of 100
    > =================
    >           0    2    4    6    8    10   12   14   16   18   20
    > --------------------------------------------------------------
    > current   3    5    8   10   12    15   17   21   23   27   31
    > memcmp    4    7   10   13   16    19   22   28   30   32   36
    >
    > Here the difference is much smaller, but even here the memcmp is
    > consistently a bit slower.
    >
    >
    > My theory is that while the current comparator starts with the most
    > variable part (relation OID), and thus usually starts after the
    > comparing the first 4B, the memcmp starts from the other end (tablespace
    > and database) and therefore needs to compare more data.
    
    Thats a good guess. I think its ok this way, but if you feel like
    playing you could just change the order in the struct...
    
    > >> +void smgrdounlinkall(SMgrRelation * rels, int nrels, bool isRedo)
    > >> +{
    > >> +	int i = 0;
    > >> +	RelFileNodeBackend *rnodes;
    > >> +	ForkNumber  forknum;
    > >> +
    > >> +	/* initialize an array which contains all relations to be dropped */
    > >> +	rnodes = palloc(sizeof(RelFileNodeBackend) * nrels);
    > >> +	for (i = 0; i < nrels; i++)
    > >> +	{
    > >> +		RelFileNodeBackend rnode = rels[i]->smgr_rnode;
    > >> +		int			which = rels[i]->smgr_which;
    > >> +
    > >> +		rnodes[i] = rnode;
    > >> +
    > >> +		/* Close the forks at smgr level */
    > >> +		for (forknum = 0; forknum <= MAX_FORKNUM; forknum++)
    > >> +			(*(smgrsw[which].smgr_close)) (rels[i], forknum);
    > >> +	}
    > >> +
    > >> +	/*
    > >> +	 * Get rid of any remaining buffers for the relation.  bufmgr will just
    > >> +	 * drop them without bothering to write the contents.
    > >> +	 */
    > >> +	DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(rnodes, nrels);
    > >
    > > I think it might be a good idea to handle temp relations on/buffers on
    > > this level instead of trying to put it into
    > > DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers. Would also allow you to only build an array
    > > of RelFileNode's instead of RelFileNodeBackend's which might make it
    > > slightl faster.
    >
    > Hmmm, sadly that'd require duplication of code because it needs to be
    > done in smgrdounlink too.
    
    It should be fairly small though.
    
    int nrels_nonlocal = 0;
    
    for (i = 0; i < nrels; i++)
    {
    	RelFileNodeBackend rnode = rels[i]->smgr_rnode;
    	int			which = rels[i]->smgr_which;
    
            if (RelFileNodeBackendIsTemp(rnode))
               DropRelFileNodeAllLocalBuffers
            else
               rnodes[nrels_nonlocal++];
    
    	for (forknum = 0; forknum <= MAX_FORKNUM; forknum++)
                (*(smgrsw[which].smgr_close)) (rels[i], forknum);
    }
    
    DropRelFileNodeAllLocalBuffers(rnode, nrels_nonlocal);
    
    In smgrdounlink it should only be a
    
    if (RelFileNodeBackendIsTemp(rnode))
       DropRelFileNodeAllLocalBuffers(rnode)
    else
       DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(rnode);
    
    ISTM that would be cleaner then memmove'ing the rnode array to remove
    the temp rels away.
    
    > >
    > >> +	/*
    > >> +	 * It'd be nice to tell the stats collector to forget it immediately, too.
    > >> +	 * But we can't because we don't know the OID (and in cases involving
    > >> +	 * relfilenode swaps, it's not always clear which table OID to forget,
    > >> +	 * anyway).
    > >> +	 */
    > >
    > > This and at least one other comment seems to be in too many locations
    > > now.
    >
    > I see it in three places - smgrdounlink, smgrdounlinkall and
    > smgrdounlinkfork. Which ones you consider superfluous? I think it's
    > appropriate to keep them in all three places.
    
    I only read the patch, not the result, so maybe youre right. I'll look
    at it sometime.
    
    Greetings,
    
    Andres Freund
    
    --
     Andres Freund	                   http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
     PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services
    
    
    
  22. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2012-12-24T01:41:37Z

    On 20.12.2012 12:33, Andres Freund wrote:
    > On 2012-12-20 02:54:48 +0100, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    >> On 19.12.2012 02:18, Andres Freund wrote:
    >>> On 2012-12-17 00:31:00 +0100, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    >>>
    >>> I think except of the temp buffer issue mentioned below its ready.
    >>>
    >>>> -DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(RelFileNodeBackend rnode)
    >>>> +DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(RelFileNodeBackend * rnodes, int nnodes)
    >>>>  {
    >>>> -	int			i;
    >>>> +	int         i, j;
    >>>> +
    >>>> +	/* sort the list of rnodes */
    >>>> +	pg_qsort(rnodes, nnodes, sizeof(RelFileNodeBackend), rnode_comparator);
    >>>>
    >>>>  	/* If it's a local relation, it's localbuf.c's problem. */
    >>>> -	if (RelFileNodeBackendIsTemp(rnode))
    >>>> +	for (i = 0; i < nnodes; i++)
    >>>>  	{
    >>>> -		if (rnode.backend == MyBackendId)
    >>>> -			DropRelFileNodeAllLocalBuffers(rnode.node);
    >>>> -		return;
    >>>> +		if (RelFileNodeBackendIsTemp(rnodes[i]))
    >>>> +		{
    >>>> +			if (rnodes[i].backend == MyBackendId)
    >>>> +				DropRelFileNodeAllLocalBuffers(rnodes[i].node);
    >>>> +		}
    >>>>  	}
    >>>
    >>> While you deal with local buffers here you don't anymore in the big loop
    >>> over shared buffers. That wasn't needed earlier since we just returned
    >>> after noticing we have local relation, but thats not the case anymore.
    >>
    >> Hmm, but that would require us to handle the temp relations explicitly
    >> wherever we call DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers. Currently there are two such
    >> places - smgrdounlink() and smgrdounlinkall().
    >>
    >> By placing it into DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers() this code is shared and I
    >> think it's a good thing.
    >>
    >> But that does not mean the code is perfect - it was based on the
    >> assumption that if there's a mix of temp and regular relations, the temp
    >> relations will be handled in the first part and the rest in the second one.
    >>
    >> Maybe it'd be better to improve it so that the temp relations are
    >> removed from the array after the first part (and skip the second one if
    >> there are no remaining relations).
    > 
    > The problem is that afaik without the backend-local part a temporary
    > relation could match the same relfilenode as a "full" relation which
    > would have pretty bad consequences.
    
    Attached is a patch with fixed handling of temporary relations. I've
    chosen to keep the logic in DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers and rather do a
    local copy without the local relations.
    
    regards
    Tomas
    
  23. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> — 2012-12-30T03:03:42Z

    On Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 8:41 PM, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    > Attached is a patch with fixed handling of temporary relations. I've
    > chosen to keep the logic in DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers and rather do a
    > local copy without the local relations.
    
    This looks pretty good, although it needs some cleanup for coding
    style.  And I think BSEARCH_LIMIT cuts a bit too broadly as a name for
    the constant.
    
    Granted that we can't decide on an exact value for BSEARCH_LIMIT, is
    there any data to indicate that 10 is at least an approximately
    correct value?
    
    -- 
    Robert Haas
    EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
    The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company
    
    
    
  24. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2012-12-31T16:51:41Z

    On 30.12.2012 04:03, Robert Haas wrote:
    > On Sun, Dec 23, 2012 at 8:41 PM, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    >> Attached is a patch with fixed handling of temporary relations. I've
    >> chosen to keep the logic in DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers and rather do a
    >> local copy without the local relations.
    > 
    > This looks pretty good, although it needs some cleanup for coding
    > style.  And I think BSEARCH_LIMIT cuts a bit too broadly as a name for
    > the constant.
    
    I thought I followed the conding style - which guidelines have I broken?
    
    I agree that BSEARCH_LIMIT is a bit too short / not exactly descriptive.
    What alternative would you suggest?
    
    > Granted that we can't decide on an exact value for BSEARCH_LIMIT, is
    > there any data to indicate that 10 is at least an approximately
    > correct value?
    
    I've presented some relevant test results on 17/12, here is the
    interesting part:
    
    # indexes    0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7    8    9   10   11
    --------------------------------------------------------------
    unpatched   16  28  40  52  63  75  87  99  110  121  135  147
         v3.1   33  43  46  56  58  60  63  72   75   76   79   80
         v3.3   16  20  23  25  29  33  36  40   44   47   79   82
    
    
    where v3.1 is a patch doing bsearch all the time, v3.3 uses the
    BSEARCH_LIMIT optimization. A few observations:
    
    (a) the v3.3 is consistently faster, and the time increases by about
        3.5 second for each index
    
    (b) the v3.1 is slower at the beginning, but at the end the time
        increases much slower (~1.5 sec/index)
    
    (c) once we get to 4 indexes (5 relations in total), both 3.1 and 3.3
        are faster than the current code
    
    (d) in case of v3.3, there's a step increase between 9 and 10 indexes
        (because for 10 indexes the code chooses the bsearch path), but even
        after this increase both versions are faster than the original code
    
    Given (b) and (c) both patches should meet at about 24 (so we might
    increase the BSEARCH_LIMIT e.g. to 25). It's a bit difficult to predict
    the behaviour on different machines (different CPUs, different amounts
    of shared_buffers etc.) but I guess this is safe.
    
    But even if we stick to the current value (10) I believe it's safe and
    both versions are much faster than the current code.
    
    regards
    Tomas
    
    
    
  25. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@2ndquadrant.com> — 2013-01-01T16:35:39Z

    There was an earlier suggestion by Andres Freund to use memcmp()
    instead, but I don't see that in the latest posted version of the patch;
    was there a specific rationale for taking it out or it was just lost in
    the shuffle?
    
    -- 
    Álvaro Herrera                http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
    PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services
    
    
    
  26. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2013-01-01T16:43:53Z

    On 1.1.2013 17:35, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
    > There was an earlier suggestion by Andres Freund to use memcmp()
    > instead, but I don't see that in the latest posted version of the patch;
    > was there a specific rationale for taking it out or it was just lost in
    > the shuffle?
    
    No, I've tried that approach with a comparator like this:
    
        static int
        rnode_comparator(const void * p1, const void * p2)
        {
                return memcmp(p1, p2, sizeof(RelFileNode));
        }
    
    but it turned out to be slower than the current comparator. I've posted
    some benchmark results and possible explanation on 20/12 (message
    50D26FE8.1040800@fuzzy.cz).
    
    If you could verify my results, that'd be great.
    
    Tomas
    
    
    
  27. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> — 2013-01-04T16:42:07Z

    On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 11:51 AM, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    > I thought I followed the conding style - which guidelines have I broken?
    
    +	/* If there are no non-local relations, then we're done. Release the memory
    +	 * and return. */
    
    Multi-line comments should start with a line containing only /* and
    end with a line containing only */.
    
    +DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(RelFileNodeBackend * rnodes, int nnodes)
    and
    +rnode_comparator(const void * p1, const void * p2)
    
    The extra spaces after the asterisks should be removed.
    
    +void smgrdounlinkall(SMgrRelation * rels, int nrels, bool isRedo)
    +{
    
    void should be on a line by itself.
    
    Sorry to nitpick.
    
    As for BSEARCH_LIMIT, I don't have a great idea - maybe just
    DROP_RELATIONS_BSEARCH_LIMIT?
    
    -- 
    Robert Haas
    EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
    The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company
    
    
    
  28. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@2ndquadrant.com> — 2013-01-04T17:08:35Z

    On Mon, Dec 24, 2012 at 02:41:37AM +0100, Tomas Vondra wrote:
    
    > +	SMgrRelation   *srels = palloc(sizeof(SMgrRelation));
    > +	int			nrels = 0,
    > +				i = 0,
    > +				maxrels = 1;
    
    maxrels=1 is not good -- too much palloc traffic.  I'd make it start at,
    say, 8 instead.
    
    -- 
    Álvaro Herrera                http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
    PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services
    
    
    
  29. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2013-01-06T03:35:30Z

    On 4.1.2013 17:42, Robert Haas wrote:
    > On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 11:51 AM, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    >> I thought I followed the conding style - which guidelines have I broken?
    > 
    > +	/* If there are no non-local relations, then we're done. Release the memory
    > +	 * and return. */
    > 
    > Multi-line comments should start with a line containing only /* and
    > end with a line containing only */.
    > 
    > +DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers(RelFileNodeBackend * rnodes, int nnodes)
    > and
    > +rnode_comparator(const void * p1, const void * p2)
    > 
    > The extra spaces after the asterisks should be removed.
    > 
    > +void smgrdounlinkall(SMgrRelation * rels, int nrels, bool isRedo)
    > +{
    > 
    > void should be on a line by itself.
    > 
    > Sorry to nitpick.
    
    No, thanks for the nitpicking! Code style is important.
    
    > As for BSEARCH_LIMIT, I don't have a great idea - maybe just
    > DROP_RELATIONS_BSEARCH_LIMIT?
    
    Sounds good. I've changed the name and fixed the codestyle issues in the
    attached version of the patch.
    
    Tomas
    
  30. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Shigeru Hanada <shigeru.hanada@gmail.com> — 2013-01-07T09:07:39Z

    Hi Tomas,
    
    I reviewed v6 patch, and found that several places need fix.
    Sorry for extra nitpickings.
    
    * I found another extra space after asterisk.
    
    +	RelFileNode * nodes;
    
    * Curly bracket which starts code block should be at the head of next line.
    
    +				/* extend the array if needed (double the size) */
    +				if (maxrels <= nrels) {
    
    * There are several trailing tabs in src/backend/catalog/storage.c.
    
    * naming of DROP_RELATIONS_BSEARCH_LIMIT (or off-by-one bug?)
    IIUC bsearch is used when # of relations to be dropped is *more* than
    the value of DROP_RELATIONS_BSEARCH_LIMIT (10).  IMO this behavior is
    not what the macro name implies; I thought that bsearch is used for 10
    relations.  Besides, the word "LIMIT" is used as *upper limit* in
    other macros.  How about MIN_DROP_REL[ATION]S_BSEARCH or
    DROP_REL[ATION]S_LINEAR_SEARCH_LIMIT?
    # using RELS instead of RELATIONS would be better to shorten the name
    
    * +1 for Alvaro's suggestion about avoiding palloc traffic by starting
    with 8 elements or so.
    
    Regards,
    -- 
    Shigeru HANADA
    
    
    
  31. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2013-01-07T22:08:31Z

    On 7.1.2013 10:07, Shigeru Hanada wrote:
    > Hi Tomas,
    > 
    > I reviewed v6 patch, and found that several places need fix.
    > Sorry for extra nitpickings.
    > 
    > * I found another extra space after asterisk.
    > 
    > +	RelFileNode * nodes;
    
    Thanks, fixed.
    
    > 
    > * Curly bracket which starts code block should be at the head of next line.
    > 
    > +				/* extend the array if needed (double the size) */
    > +				if (maxrels <= nrels) {
    
    Fixed.
    
    > 
    > * There are several trailing tabs in src/backend/catalog/storage.c.
    
    Fixed (I balieve).
    
    > * naming of DROP_RELATIONS_BSEARCH_LIMIT (or off-by-one bug?)
    > IIUC bsearch is used when # of relations to be dropped is *more* than
    > the value of DROP_RELATIONS_BSEARCH_LIMIT (10).  IMO this behavior is
    > not what the macro name implies; I thought that bsearch is used for 10
    > relations.  Besides, the word "LIMIT" is used as *upper limit* in
    > other macros.  How about MIN_DROP_REL[ATION]S_BSEARCH or
    > DROP_REL[ATION]S_LINEAR_SEARCH_LIMIT?
    > # using RELS instead of RELATIONS would be better to shorten the name
    >
    
    I've changed the name to DROP_RELS_BSEARCH_THRESHOLD. I believe this
    naming is consistent with options like "geqo_threshold" - when the
    number of relations reaches the specified value, the bsearch is used.
    
    I've also increased the value from 10 to 20, in accordance with the
    previous discussion.
    
    > 
    > * +1 for Alvaro's suggestion about avoiding palloc traffic by starting
    > with 8 elements or so.
    > 
    
    Done.
    
    regards
    Tomas
    
  32. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Shigeru Hanada <shigeru.hanada@gmail.com> — 2013-01-08T02:47:34Z

    Hi Tomas,
    
    On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 7:08 AM, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    >> * I found another extra space after asterisk.
    >>
    >> +     RelFileNode * nodes;
    >
    > Thanks, fixed.
    
    check
    
    >> * Curly bracket which starts code block should be at the head of next line.
    >>
    >> +                             /* extend the array if needed (double the size) */
    >> +                             if (maxrels <= nrels) {
    >
    > Fixed.
    
    check
    
    >> * There are several trailing tabs in src/backend/catalog/storage.c.
    >
    > Fixed (I balieve).
    
    check
    
    >> * naming of DROP_RELATIONS_BSEARCH_LIMIT (or off-by-one bug?)
    >> IIUC bsearch is used when # of relations to be dropped is *more* than
    >> the value of DROP_RELATIONS_BSEARCH_LIMIT (10).  IMO this behavior is
    >> not what the macro name implies; I thought that bsearch is used for 10
    >> relations.  Besides, the word "LIMIT" is used as *upper limit* in
    >> other macros.  How about MIN_DROP_REL[ATION]S_BSEARCH or
    >> DROP_REL[ATION]S_LINEAR_SEARCH_LIMIT?
    >> # using RELS instead of RELATIONS would be better to shorten the name
    >>
    >
    > I've changed the name to DROP_RELS_BSEARCH_THRESHOLD. I believe this
    > naming is consistent with options like "geqo_threshold" - when the
    > number of relations reaches the specified value, the bsearch is used.
    >
    > I've also increased the value from 10 to 20, in accordance with the
    > previous discussion.
    
    New name sounds good to me, but the #define says that the value is 15.
    Should it be fixed to 20?
    
    >> * +1 for Alvaro's suggestion about avoiding palloc traffic by starting
    >> with 8 elements or so.
    >>
    >
    > Done.
    
    Not yet.  Initial size of srels array is still 1 element.
    
    Regards,
    -- 
    Shigeru HANADA
    
    
    
  33. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2013-01-08T20:56:41Z

    On 8.1.2013 03:47, Shigeru Hanada wrote:
    >>> * naming of DROP_RELATIONS_BSEARCH_LIMIT (or off-by-one bug?)
    >>> IIUC bsearch is used when # of relations to be dropped is *more* than
    >>> the value of DROP_RELATIONS_BSEARCH_LIMIT (10).  IMO this behavior is
    >>> not what the macro name implies; I thought that bsearch is used for 10
    >>> relations.  Besides, the word "LIMIT" is used as *upper limit* in
    >>> other macros.  How about MIN_DROP_REL[ATION]S_BSEARCH or
    >>> DROP_REL[ATION]S_LINEAR_SEARCH_LIMIT?
    >>> # using RELS instead of RELATIONS would be better to shorten the name
    >>>
    >>
    >> I've changed the name to DROP_RELS_BSEARCH_THRESHOLD. I believe this
    >> naming is consistent with options like "geqo_threshold" - when the
    >> number of relations reaches the specified value, the bsearch is used.
    >>
    >> I've also increased the value from 10 to 20, in accordance with the
    >> previous discussion.
    > 
    > New name sounds good to me, but the #define says that the value is 15.
    > Should it be fixed to 20?
    
    Ah, yes, please increase it to 20. I've increased it from 10 to 15
    first, but I think 20 is nearer the optimal value and I forgot to change
    it in the code.
    
    > 
    >>> * +1 for Alvaro's suggestion about avoiding palloc traffic by starting
    >>> with 8 elements or so.
    >>>
    >>
    >> Done.
    > 
    > Not yet.  Initial size of srels array is still 1 element.
    
    I've checked the patch and I see there 'maxrels = 8' - or do you mean
    something else?
    
    
    Tomas
    
    
    
  34. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@2ndquadrant.com> — 2013-01-08T21:30:25Z

    Tomas Vondra wrote:
    > On 8.1.2013 03:47, Shigeru Hanada wrote:
    
    > >>> * +1 for Alvaro's suggestion about avoiding palloc traffic by starting
    > >>> with 8 elements or so.
    > >>
    > >> Done.
    > > 
    > > Not yet.  Initial size of srels array is still 1 element.
    > 
    > I've checked the patch and I see there 'maxrels = 8' - or do you mean
    > something else?
    
    Well, you need to ensure that the initial palloc is an array of that
    size.
    
    -- 
    Álvaro Herrera                http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
    PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services
    
    
    
  35. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2013-01-08T21:38:52Z

    On 8.1.2013 22:30, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
    > Tomas Vondra wrote:
    >> On 8.1.2013 03:47, Shigeru Hanada wrote:
    > 
    >>>>> * +1 for Alvaro's suggestion about avoiding palloc traffic by starting
    >>>>> with 8 elements or so.
    >>>>
    >>>> Done.
    >>>
    >>> Not yet.  Initial size of srels array is still 1 element.
    >>
    >> I've checked the patch and I see there 'maxrels = 8' - or do you mean
    >> something else?
    > 
    > Well, you need to ensure that the initial palloc is an array of that
    > size.
    
    Oh, right - I forgot to modify the palloc() call. Thanks for spotting
    this. Attached is a patch with increased threshold and fixed palloc call.
    
    Tomas
    
  36. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Shigeru Hanada <shigeru.hanada@gmail.com> — 2013-01-09T07:03:44Z

    Hi Tomas,
    
    On Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 6:38 AM, Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> wrote:
    >> Well, you need to ensure that the initial palloc is an array of that
    >> size.
    >
    > Oh, right - I forgot to modify the palloc() call. Thanks for spotting
    > this. Attached is a patch with increased threshold and fixed palloc call.
    
    OK, both threshold and initial palloc were fixed correctly.
    
    I'll mark this patch as "Ready for committer".
    Good work! :-)
    
    Regards,
    -- 
    Shigeru HANADA
    
    
    
  37. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@2ndquadrant.com> — 2013-01-17T19:19:38Z

    Tomas Vondra wrote:
    > Hi,
    > 
    > attached is a patch that improves performance when dropping multiple
    > tables within a transaction. Instead of scanning the shared buffers for
    > each table separately, the patch removes this and evicts all the tables
    > in a single pass through shared buffers.
    
    Made some tweaks and pushed (added comments to new functions, ensure
    that we never try to palloc(0), renamed DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers to
    plural, made the "use bsearch" logic a bit simpler).
    
    > Our system creates a lot of "working tables" (even 100.000) and we need
    > to perform garbage collection (dropping obsolete tables) regularly. This
    > often took ~ 1 hour, because we're using big AWS instances with lots of
    > RAM (which tends to be slower than RAM on bare hw). After applying this
    > patch and dropping tables in groups of 100, the gc runs in less than 4
    > minutes (i.e. a 15x speed-up).
    
    I'm curious -- why would you drop tables in groups of 100 instead of
    just doing the 100,000 in a single transaction?  Maybe that's faster
    now, because you'd do a single scan of the buffer pool instead of 1000?
    (I'm assuming that "in groups of" means you do each group in a separate
    transaction)
    
    -- 
    Álvaro Herrera                http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
    PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services
    
    
    
  38. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> — 2013-01-17T19:39:53Z

    Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@2ndquadrant.com> writes:
    > Made some tweaks and pushed (added comments to new functions, ensure
    > that we never try to palloc(0), renamed DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers to
    > plural, made the "use bsearch" logic a bit simpler).
    
    FWIW, there's nothing particularly wrong with palloc(0) ...
    
    			regards, tom lane
    
    
    
  39. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Tomas Vondra <tv@fuzzy.cz> — 2013-01-17T23:55:05Z

    On 17.1.2013 20:19, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
    > 
    > I'm curious -- why would you drop tables in groups of 100 instead of
    > just doing the 100,000 in a single transaction?  Maybe that's faster
    > now, because you'd do a single scan of the buffer pool instead of 1000?
    > (I'm assuming that "in groups of" means you do each group in a separate
    > transaction)
    
    There's a limited number of locks, and each DROP acquires a lock
    (possibly more than one).
    
    Tomas
    
    
    
    
  40. Re: PATCH: optimized DROP of multiple tables within a transaction

    Craig Ringer <craig@2ndquadrant.com> — 2013-01-18T01:30:11Z

    On 01/18/2013 03:19 AM, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
    > Tomas Vondra wrote:
    >> Hi,
    >>
    >> attached is a patch that improves performance when dropping multiple
    >> tables within a transaction. Instead of scanning the shared buffers for
    >> each table separately, the patch removes this and evicts all the tables
    >> in a single pass through shared buffers.
    > Made some tweaks and pushed (added comments to new functions, ensure
    > that we never try to palloc(0), renamed DropRelFileNodeAllBuffers to
    > plural, made the "use bsearch" logic a bit simpler).
    Commit ref is
    
    http://git.postgresql.org/gitweb/?p=postgresql.git;a=commit;h=279628a0a7cf582f7dfb68e25b7b76183dd8ff2f
    
    Flagged as committed.
    
    -- 
     Craig Ringer                   http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
     PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services