Re: why not parallel seq scan for slow functions

On Fri, Aug 25, 2017 at 10:08 PM, Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 21, 2017 at 5:08 AM, Amit Kapila <amit.kapila16@gmail.com> wrote:
>> (b) I have changed the costing of gather path for path target in
>> generate_gather_paths which I am not sure is the best way. Another
>> possibility could have been that I change the code in
>> apply_projection_to_path as done in the previous patch and just call
>> it from generate_gather_paths.  I have not done that because of your
>> comment above thread ("is probably unsafe, because it might confuse
>> code that reaches the modified-in-place path through some other
>> pointer (e.g. code which expects the RelOptInfo's paths to still be
>> sorted by cost).").  It is not clear to me what exactly is bothering
>> you if we directly change costing in apply_projection_to_path.
>
> The point I was trying to make is that if you retroactively change the
> cost of a path after you've already done add_path(), it's too late to
> change your mind about whether to keep the path.  At least according
> to my current understanding, that's the root of this problem in the
> first place.  On top of that, add_path() and other routines that deal
> with RelOptInfo path lists expect surviving paths to be ordered by
> descending cost; if you frob the cost, they might not be properly
> ordered any more.
>

Okay, now I understand your point, but I think we already change the
cost of paths in apply_projection_to_path which is done after add_path
for top level scan/join paths.  I think this matters a lot in case of
Gather because the cost of computing target list can be divided among
workers.  I have changed the patch such that parallel paths for top
level scan/join node will be generated after pathtarget is ready.  I
had kept the costing of path targets local to
apply_projection_to_path() as that makes the patch simple.

-- 
With Regards,
Amit Kapila.
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com