Horton

race condition when writing pg_control

Nathan Bossart <bossartn@amazon.com>

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From: "Bossart, Nathan" <bossartn@amazon.com>
To: "pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org" <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Date: 2020-05-04T17:44:21Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers

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Hi hackers,

I believe I've discovered a race condition between the startup and
checkpointer processes that can cause a CRC mismatch in the pg_control
file.  If a cluster crashes at the right time, the following error
appears when you attempt to restart it:

        FATAL:  incorrect checksum in control file

This appears to be caused by some code paths in xlog_redo() that
update ControlFile without taking the ControlFileLock.  The attached
patch seems to be sufficient to prevent the CRC mismatch in the
control file, but perhaps this is a symptom of a bigger problem with
concurrent modifications of ControlFile->checkPointCopy.nextFullXid.

Nathan

Commits

  1. Fix locking bugs that could corrupt pg_control.