Re: allow changing autovacuum_max_workers without restarting

Sami Imseih <simseih@amazon.com>

From: "Imseih (AWS), Sami" <simseih@amazon.com>
To: Nathan Bossart <nathandbossart@gmail.com>
Cc: "pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org" <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Date: 2024-04-11T15:37:23Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
> My concern with this approach is that other background workers could use up
> all the slots and prevent autovacuum workers from starting

That's a good point, the current settings do not guarantee that you
get a worker for the purpose if none are available, 
i.e. max_parallel_workers_per_gather, you may have 2 workers planned 
and 0 launched. 

> unless of
> course we reserve autovacuum_max_workers slots for _only_ autovacuum
> workers. I'm not sure if we want to get these parameters tangled up like
> this, though...

This will be confusing to describe and we will be reserving autovac workers
implicitly, rather than explicitly with a new GUC.

Regards,

Sami  



Commits

Same data as JSON: GET /api/v1/messages/:b64id/commits the thread's linked commits as JSON, with link sources. API reference →
  1. Give up on running with NetBSD/OpenBSD's default semaphore settings.

  2. initdb: Do not report default autovacuum_worker_slots.

  3. Lower default value of autovacuum_worker_slots in initdb as needed.

  4. Allow changing autovacuum_max_workers without restarting.

  5. Reserve a PGPROC slot and semaphore for the slotsync worker process.

  6. Make archiver process an auxiliary process.

  7. Correct the formulas for System V IPC parameters SEMMNI and SEMMNS in docs.