Re: pg_plan_advice

Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>

From: Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>
To: Lukas Fittl <lukas@fittl.com>
Cc: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>, PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org>
Date: 2026-03-26T23:25:57Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
On Thu, Mar 26, 2026 at 3:52 PM Lukas Fittl <lukas@fittl.com> wrote:
> That said, reflecting on the change, I wonder if its odd that we're
> copying a string pointer instead of making an actual string copy. I
> think that's probably okay in practice?

Normally, all of planning happens in the same memory context. Under
GEQO, joins are planned in shorter-lived contexts that are reset, but
I don't think a new PlannerInfo can get created in one of those
short-lived contexts. At any rate, there's no point in having two
copies of the same string in the same memory context.

> I'm still 50/50 on the naming here, since we have the alternative sub
> plan that has an "alternative plan name" that's not that of the
> alternative itself, but rather the base plan that was utilized. But I
> see your concern regarding the naming being confusing in terms of what
> the "original" or "base" would actually refer to. I've also considered
> whether something like "alternative_plan_group" could make sense
> (since all alternative sub plans will have the same value), but maybe
> that conveys too much intent on what this is used for.

Let's go with this for now, and if a consensus emerges that I got it
wrong, we can always change it.

> That said, I think for now, to get the buildfarm happy again, v23/0001
> seems good.
>
> v23/0002 also looks good.

Thanks. Committed. Nothing has obviously broken so far, BUT even
machines like skink that were failing weren't failing on every run, so
it may be a while before we get a clear view of the situation --
unless of course this didn't fix it or even made things worse, in
which case we might find out a lot faster. Hopefully not, but then I
thought this was going to work the first time.

In the meanwhile, we should try to make a decision on what to do about
pg_collect_advice and pg_stash_advice.

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



Commits

Same data as JSON: GET /api/v1/messages/:b64id/commits the thread's linked commits as JSON, with link sources. API reference →
  1. pg_plan_advice: Fix another unique-semijoin bug.

  2. pg_plan_advice: Export feedback-related definitions.

  3. pg_plan_advice: Fix a bug when a subquery is pruned away entirely.

  4. pg_plan_advice: Add alternatives test to Makefile.

  5. pg_plan_advice: Handle non-repeatable TABLESAMPLE scans.

  6. pg_stash_advice: Allow stashed advice to be persisted to disk.

  7. Add pg_stash_advice contrib module.

  8. pg_plan_advice: Avoid assertion failure with partitionwise aggregate.

  9. pg_plan_advice: Invent DO_NOT_SCAN(relation_identifier).

  10. Add an alternative_plan_name field to PlannerInfo.

  11. pg_plan_advice: Refactor to invent pgpa_planner_info

  12. Respect disabled_nodes in fix_alternative_subplan.

  13. get_memoize_path: Don't exit quickly when PGS_NESTLOOP_PLAIN is unset.

  14. test_plan_advice: Set TAP test priority 50 in meson.build.

  15. pg_plan_advice: Avoid a crash under GEQO.

  16. Test pg_plan_advice using a new test_plan_advice module.

  17. pg_plan_advice: Always install pg_plan_advice.h, and in the right place

  18. pg_plan_advice: Fix failures to accept identifier keywords.

  19. Add pg_plan_advice contrib module.

  20. Allow extensions to mark an individual index as disabled.

  21. Replace get_relation_info_hook with build_simple_rel_hook.

  22. Store information about Append node consolidation in the final plan.

  23. Store information about elided nodes in the final plan.

  24. Store information about range-table flattening in the final plan.

  25. Pass cursorOptions to planner_setup_hook.

  26. Fix PGS_CONSIDER_NONPARTIAL interaction with Materialize nodes.

  27. Fix mistakes in commit 4020b370f214315b8c10430301898ac21658143f

  28. Allow for plugin control over path generation strategies.

  29. Update some comments for fasthash

  30. Allow passing a pointer to GetNamedDSMSegment()'s init callback.

  31. Don't reset the pathlist of partitioned joinrels.

  32. Treat number of disabled nodes in a path as a separate cost metric.