Re: Buffer locking is special (hints, checksums, AIO writes)

Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>

From: Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>
To: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
Cc: Noah Misch <noah@leadboat.com>, pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org, Melanie Plageman <melanieplageman@gmail.com>, Thomas Munro <thomas.munro@gmail.com>, Heikki Linnakangas <hlinnaka@iki.fi>
Date: 2025-08-27T19:22:55Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers

Commits

Same data as JSON: GET /api/v1/messages/:b64id/commits the thread's linked commits as JSON, with link sources. API reference →
  1. Require share-exclusive lock to set hint bits and to flush

  2. lwlock: Remove ForEachLWLockHeldByMe

  3. bufmgr: Implement buffer content locks independently of lwlocks

  4. bufmgr: Change BufferDesc.state to be a 64-bit atomic

  5. heapam: Add batch mode mvcc check and use it in page mode

  6. freespace: Don't modify page without any lock

  7. heapam: Move logic to handle HEAP_MOVED into a helper function

  8. bufmgr: Optimize & harmonize LockBufHdr(), LWLockWaitListLock()

  9. bufmgr: Add one-entry cache for private refcount

  10. bufmgr: Separate keys for private refcount infrastructure

  11. Add pg_atomic_unlocked_write_u64

  12. Rename BUFFERPIN wait event class to BUFFER

  13. bufmgr: Turn BUFFER_LOCK_* into an enum

  14. lwlock: Fix, currently harmless, bug in LWLockWakeup()

  15. bufmgr: Use atomic sub for unpinning buffers

  16. bufmgr: Allow some buffer state modifications while holding header lock

  17. bufmgr: Fix valgrind checking for buffers pinned in StrategyGetBuffer()

  18. bufmgr: Don't lock buffer header in StrategyGetBuffer()

  19. bufmgr: fewer calls to BufferDescriptorGetContentLock

  20. bufmgr: Fix signedness of mask variable in BufferSync()

  21. bufmgr: Introduce FlushUnlockedBuffer

  22. Improve ReadRecentBuffer() scalability

On Wed, Aug 27, 2025 at 12:18 PM Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de> wrote:
> Which would leave us with:
> - reference (pins today)
> - share
> - share-exclusive
> - exclusive
> - cleanup
>
> This doesn't quite seem to map onto the heavyweight lock levels in a sensible
> way...

Could do: ACCESS SHARE, SHARE, SHARE UPDATE EXCLUSIVE, EXCLUSIVE,
ACCESS EXCLUSIVE.

I've always thought that a pin was a lot like an access share lock and
a cleanup lock was a lot like an access exclusive lock.

But then again, using the same terminology for two different things
might be confusing.

-- 
Robert Haas
EDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com