Thread
Commits
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Restore the ability to run pl/pgsql expression queries in parallel.
- ae693c0bfd9e 13.22 landed
- 602c91cf2ef7 14.19 landed
- c65c36ab5195 15.14 landed
- 3bbc1c4a7338 16.10 landed
- a553a2289dbb 17.6 landed
- 440c5ee20200 18.0 landed
- 87b05fdc73e8 19 (unreleased) landed
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Simplify executor's determination of whether to use parallelism.
- 556f7b7bc18d 17.3 cited
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[PATCH] Allow parallelism for plpgsql return expression after commit 556f7b7
DIPESH DHAMELIYA <dipeshdhameliya125@gmail.com> — 2025-05-05T05:48:42Z
Hello everyone, With the commit 556f7b7bc18d34ddec45392965c3b3038206bb62, Any plpgsql function that returns scalar value would not be able to use parallelism to evaluate a return statement. It will not be considered for parallel execution because we are passing maxtuples = 2 to exec_run_select from exec_eval_expr to evaluate the return expression of the function. Call stake to ExecutePlan - #0 ExecutePlan (queryDesc=0x589c390, operation=CMD_SELECT, sendTuples=true, numberTuples=2, direction=ForwardScanDirection, dest=0xe15ca0 <spi_printtupDR>) at execMain.c:1654 #1 0x000000000075edb6 in standard_ExecutorRun (queryDesc=0x589c390, direction=ForwardScanDirection, count=2, execute_once=true) at execMain.c:366 #2 0x00007f5749c9b8d8 in explain_ExecutorRun (queryDesc=0x589c390, direction=ForwardScanDirection, count=2, execute_once=true) at auto_explain.c:334 #3 0x000000000075ec25 in ExecutorRun (queryDesc=0x589c390, direction=ForwardScanDirection, count=2, execute_once=true) at execMain.c:310 #4 0x00000000007c4a48 in _SPI_pquery (queryDesc=0x589c390, fire_triggers=true, tcount=2) at spi.c:2980 #5 0x00000000007c44a9 in _SPI_execute_plan (plan=0x5878780, options=0x7ffc6ad467e0, snapshot=0x0, crosscheck_snapshot=0x0, fire_triggers=true) at spi.c:2747 #6 0x00000000007c135f in SPI_execute_plan_with_paramlist (plan=0x5878780, params=0x0, read_only=false, tcount=2) at spi.c:765 #7 0x00007f5749eb4a8b in exec_run_select (estate=0x7ffc6ad46ba0, expr=0x5892b80, maxtuples=2, portalP=0x0) at pl_exec.c:5840 <-- maxtuples = 2 #8 0x00007f5749eb46fe in exec_eval_expr (estate=0x7ffc6ad46ba0, expr=0x5892b80, isNull=0x7ffc6ad46bc0, rettype=0x7ffc6ad46bc4, rettypmod=0x7ffc6ad468e8) at pl_exec.c:5734 Consider the following simple repro – postgres=# create table test_tab(a int); CREATE TABLE postgres=# insert into test_tab (a) SELECT generate_series(1, 1000000); INSERT 0 1000000 postgres=# analyse test_tab; ANALYZE postgres=# create function test_plpgsql() returns int language plpgsql as $$ begin return (select count(*) from test_tab where a between 5.0 and 999999.0); end; $$; postgres=# LOAD 'auto_explain'; LOAD postgres=# SET auto_explain.log_min_duration = 0; SET postgres=# SET auto_explain.log_analyze = true; SET postgres=# SET auto_explain.log_nested_statements = true; SET postgres=# select test_plpgsql(); test_plpgsql -------------- 999995 (1 row) Plan logged in logfile - Query Text: (select count(*) from test_tab where a between 5.0 and 999999.0) Result (cost=13763.77..13763.78 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=912.108..912.110 rows=1 loops=1) InitPlan 1 -> Finalize Aggregate (cost=13763.76..13763.77 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=912.103..912.104 rows=1 loops=1) -> Gather (cost=13763.54..13763.75 rows=2 width=8) (actual time=912.096..912.098 rows=1 loops=1) Workers Planned: 2 *Workers Launched: 0* -> Partial Aggregate (cost=12763.54..12763.55 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=912.095..912.096 rows=1 loops=1) -> Parallel Seq Scan on test_tab (cost=0.00..12758.33 rows=2083 width=0) (actual time=0.022..812.253 rows=999995 loops=1) Filter: (((a)::numeric >= 5.0) AND ((a)::numeric <= 999999.0)) Rows Removed by Filter: 5 Patch to fix this issue is attached. Proposed fix should not cause any regression because the number of returned rows is anyway being checked later inside exec_eval_expr(…). Plan logged after fix – Query Text: (select count(*) from test_tab where a between 5.0 and 999999.0) Result (cost=13763.77..13763.78 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=324.397..328.007 rows=1.00 loops=1) InitPlan 1 -> Finalize Aggregate (cost=13763.76..13763.77 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=324.391..327.999 rows=1.00 loops=1) -> Gather (cost=13763.54..13763.75 rows=2 width=8) (actual time=324.052..327.989 rows=3.00 loops=1) Workers Planned: 2 *Workers Launched: 2* -> Partial Aggregate (cost=12763.54..12763.55 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=320.254..320.255 rows=1.00 loops=3) -> Parallel Seq Scan on test_tab (cost=0.00..12758.33 rows=2083 width=0) (actual time=0.029..286.410 rows=333331.67 loops=3) Filter: (((a)::numeric >= 5.0) AND ((a)::numeric <= 999999.0)) Rows Removed by Filter: 2 Thanks & Regards, Dipesh -
Re: [PATCH] Allow parallelism for plpgsql return expression after commit 556f7b7
Dilip Kumar <dilipbalaut@gmail.com> — 2025-05-20T06:27:30Z
On Mon, May 5, 2025 at 11:19 AM DIPESH DHAMELIYA <dipeshdhameliya125@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hello everyone, > > With the commit 556f7b7bc18d34ddec45392965c3b3038206bb62, Any plpgsql function that returns scalar value would not be able to use parallelism to evaluate a return statement. It will not be considered for parallel execution because we are passing maxtuples = 2 to exec_run_select from exec_eval_expr to evaluate the return expression of the function. > I could not find commit '556f7b7bc18d34ddec45392965c3b3038206bb62' in git log on the master branch, but here is my analysis after looking at your patch. I don't think we can remove the 'maxtuples' parameter from exec_run_select(). In this particular case, the query itself is returning a single tuple, so we are good. Still, in other cases where the query returns more tuples, it makes sense to stop the execution as soon as we have got enough tuples otherwise, it will do the execution until we produce all the tuples. Consider the below example where we just need to use the first tuple, but if we apply your patch, the executor will end up processing all the tuples, and it will impact the performance. So IMHO, the benefit you get by enabling a parallelism in some cases may hurt badly in other cases, as you will end up processing more tuples than required. CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_first_user_email() RETURNS TEXT AS $$ DECLARE user_email TEXT; BEGIN user_email = (SELECT email FROM users); RETURN user_email; END; $$ LANGUAGE plpgsql; -- Regards, Dilip Kumar EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com -
Re: [PATCH] Allow parallelism for plpgsql return expression after commit 556f7b7
DIPESH DHAMELIYA <dipeshdhameliya125@gmail.com> — 2025-05-20T08:14:37Z
> On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 11:57 AM Dilip Kumar <dilipbalaut@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Mon, May 5, 2025 at 11:19 AM DIPESH DHAMELIYA > <dipeshdhameliya125@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Hello everyone, > > > > With the commit 556f7b7bc18d34ddec45392965c3b3038206bb62, Any plpgsql function that returns scalar value would not be able to use parallelism to evaluate a return statement. It will not be considered for parallel execution because we are passing maxtuples = 2 to exec_run_select from exec_eval_expr to evaluate the return expression of the function. > > > I could not find commit '556f7b7bc18d34ddec45392965c3b3038206bb62' in > git log on the master branch, but here is my analysis after looking at > your patch. Here is the github link to commit - https://github.com/postgres/postgres/commit/556f7b7bc18d34ddec45392965c3b3038206bb62 and discussion - https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/20241206062549.710dc01cf91224809dd6c0e1%40sraoss.co.jp > > I don't think we can remove the 'maxtuples' parameter from > exec_run_select(). In this particular case, the query itself is > returning a single tuple, so we are good. Still, in other cases where > the query returns more tuples, it makes sense to stop the execution as > soon as we have got enough tuples otherwise, it will do the execution > until we produce all the tuples. Consider the below example where we > just need to use the first tuple, but if we apply your patch, the > executor will end up processing all the tuples, and it will impact the > performance. So IMHO, the benefit you get by enabling a parallelism > in some cases may hurt badly in other cases, as you will end up > processing more tuples than required. > > CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_first_user_email() > RETURNS TEXT AS $$ > DECLARE > user_email TEXT; > BEGIN > user_email = (SELECT email FROM users); > RETURN user_email; > END; > $$ LANGUAGE plpgsql; > I understand but aren't we blocking parallelism for genuine cases with a very complex query where parallelism can help to some extent to improve execution time? Users can always rewrite a query (for example using TOP clause) if they are expecting one tuple to be returned.
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Re: [PATCH] Allow parallelism for plpgsql return expression after commit 556f7b7
Dilip Kumar <dilipbalaut@gmail.com> — 2025-06-03T10:39:36Z
On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 1:45 PM DIPESH DHAMELIYA <dipeshdhameliya125@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 11:57 AM Dilip Kumar <dilipbalaut@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > I don't think we can remove the 'maxtuples' parameter from > > exec_run_select(). In this particular case, the query itself is > > returning a single tuple, so we are good. Still, in other cases where > > the query returns more tuples, it makes sense to stop the execution as > > soon as we have got enough tuples otherwise, it will do the execution > > until we produce all the tuples. Consider the below example where we > > just need to use the first tuple, but if we apply your patch, the > > executor will end up processing all the tuples, and it will impact the > > performance. So IMHO, the benefit you get by enabling a parallelism > > in some cases may hurt badly in other cases, as you will end up > > processing more tuples than required. > > > > CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_first_user_email() > > RETURNS TEXT AS $$ > > DECLARE > > user_email TEXT; > > BEGIN > > user_email = (SELECT email FROM users); > > RETURN user_email; > > END; > > $$ LANGUAGE plpgsql; > > > > I understand but aren't we blocking parallelism for genuine cases with > a very complex query where parallelism can help to some extent to > improve execution time? Users can always rewrite a query (for example > using TOP clause) if they are expecting one tuple to be returned. IMHO, you are targeting the fix at the wrong place. Basically if we accept this fix means the already existing functions for the users will start performing bad for enabling the parallelism in some other cases where they will see benefits, so it might not be acceptable by many users to change the application and rewrite all the procedures to get the same performance they were getting earlier. I would not say that your concern is wrong because for internal aggregate initplan we are processing all the tuple so logically it should use the parallel plan, so IMHO we need to target the fix for enabling the parallelism for initplan in cases where outer query has input the max number of tuple because that limit is for the outer plan not for the initplan. -- Regards, Dilip Kumar Google
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Re: [PATCH] Allow parallelism for plpgsql return expression after commit 556f7b7
Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> — 2025-07-03T19:52:28Z
Dilip Kumar <dilipbalaut@gmail.com> writes: > On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 1:45 PM DIPESH DHAMELIYA > <dipeshdhameliya125@gmail.com> wrote: >> I understand but aren't we blocking parallelism for genuine cases with >> a very complex query where parallelism can help to some extent to >> improve execution time? Users can always rewrite a query (for example >> using TOP clause) if they are expecting one tuple to be returned. > IMHO, you are targeting the fix at the wrong place. Basically if we > accept this fix means the already existing functions for the users > will start performing bad for enabling the parallelism in some other > cases where they will see benefits, so it might not be acceptable by > many users to change the application and rewrite all the procedures to > get the same performance they were getting earlier. I noticed this patch in the commitfest. I agree it's a bit unfortunate that that bug fix disabled parallelism for queries issued via exec_eval_expr. There isn't a lot of choice if we retain the maxtuples = 2 setting, since (as noted in the thread leading up to that commit) the executor can't safely use parallelism alongside a return-tuple-limit setting. So it was outright unsafe before. However ... I'm not sure I buy the argument that removing the maxtuples = 2 bit will be problematic for performance. If the query returns more than one tuple then exec_eval_expr is going to throw an error, so do we really need to optimize getting to that error? Especially at the cost of pessimizing other, actually-useful cases? As for the patch itself, I'm not sure about removing the maxtuples argument altogether, since it seems to me that we might still have some use for maxtuples limits in plpgsql in future. A one-liner change to make exec_eval_expr pass 0 seems sufficient. > I would not say that your concern is wrong because for internal > aggregate initplan we are processing all the tuple so logically it > should use the parallel plan, so IMHO we need to target the fix for > enabling the parallelism for initplan in cases where outer query has > input the max number of tuple because that limit is for the outer plan > not for the initplan. There's no initplan in the given test case, so I don't see how that idea is going to fix it. Also, allowing initplans to begin parallelism when the outer query isn't using parallelism seems like it'd be fraught with problems. It certainly couldn't be something we'd back-patch. regards, tom lane
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Re: [PATCH] Allow parallelism for plpgsql return expression after commit 556f7b7
Dilip Kumar <dilipbalaut@gmail.com> — 2025-07-04T05:33:31Z
On Fri, Jul 4, 2025 at 1:22 AM Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote: > > Dilip Kumar <dilipbalaut@gmail.com> writes: > > On Tue, May 20, 2025 at 1:45 PM DIPESH DHAMELIYA > > <dipeshdhameliya125@gmail.com> wrote: > >> I understand but aren't we blocking parallelism for genuine cases with > >> a very complex query where parallelism can help to some extent to > >> improve execution time? Users can always rewrite a query (for example > >> using TOP clause) if they are expecting one tuple to be returned. > > > IMHO, you are targeting the fix at the wrong place. Basically if we > > accept this fix means the already existing functions for the users > > will start performing bad for enabling the parallelism in some other > > cases where they will see benefits, so it might not be acceptable by > > many users to change the application and rewrite all the procedures to > > get the same performance they were getting earlier. > > I noticed this patch in the commitfest. I agree it's a bit > unfortunate that that bug fix disabled parallelism for queries issued > via exec_eval_expr. There isn't a lot of choice if we retain > the maxtuples = 2 setting, since (as noted in the thread leading up > to that commit) the executor can't safely use parallelism alongside > a return-tuple-limit setting. So it was outright unsafe before. > > However ... I'm not sure I buy the argument that removing the > maxtuples = 2 bit will be problematic for performance. If the query > returns more than one tuple then exec_eval_expr is going to throw > an error, so do we really need to optimize getting to that error? > Especially at the cost of pessimizing other, actually-useful cases? I was thinking about the cases where the query returns just 1 row but has to scan the entire table, but after thinking more it will behave the same because we are passing maxtuple=2 not 1 it means it anyway has to scan the entire table in the non error cases. > As for the patch itself, I'm not sure about removing the maxtuples > argument altogether, since it seems to me that we might still have > some use for maxtuples limits in plpgsql in future. A one-liner > change to make exec_eval_expr pass 0 seems sufficient. > > > I would not say that your concern is wrong because for internal > > aggregate initplan we are processing all the tuple so logically it > > should use the parallel plan, so IMHO we need to target the fix for > > enabling the parallelism for initplan in cases where outer query has > > input the max number of tuple because that limit is for the outer plan > > not for the initplan. > > There's no initplan in the given test case, so I don't see how > that idea is going to fix it. Also, allowing initplans to begin > parallelism when the outer query isn't using parallelism seems > like it'd be fraught with problems. It certainly couldn't be > something we'd back-patch. If you see the original problematic case[1] shown by dipesh, where the parallel plan is selected for the initPlan1 but it could not launch the worker because of the below check[2] in ExecutePlan. So here my concern was that the number of "max tuple" was passed for the top level plan, however the parallelism is restricted for the InitPlan as well. If I understand the code comments correctly, they state that "Parallel mode only supports complete execution of a plan." Given that "InitPlan1" does run to completion, it seems the issue here is that when the top-level plan isn't fully executed, it restricts parallelism for its sub-plans or init-plans, even if those sub-plans are running to completion. It seems the straightforward solution might be what Dipesh suggested. I initially opposed it, fearing it would negatively impact the performance of non-error cases, but I now realize that's not the case. Furthermore, I believe that if we avoid passing maxtuple=2, it could also enable parallelism for other scenarios, such as when the main plan returns only a single tuple but requires a full table scan. I believe that last scenario is precisely what you had in mind. I see two distinct issues at play here. First, parallelism is blocked because maxtuple=2 is being passed from exec_eval_expr(). Second, if a maximum tuple limit is applied to the parent plan, it inadvertently restricts parallelism for the init plan as well, even when that init plan needs to execute fully.. If we address the first issue, where maxtuple=2 is passed from exec_eval_expr(), it will resolve both problems in this specific scenario. However, the second problem, where limiting max tuple on the top-level plan impacts the init plan's parallelism, will persist in other cases. [1] Query Text: (select count(*) from test_tab where a between 5.0 and 999999.0) Result (cost=13763.77..13763.78 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=912.108..912.110 rows=1 loops=1) InitPlan 1 -> Finalize Aggregate (cost=13763.76..13763.77 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=912.103..912.104 rows=1 loops=1) -> Gather (cost=13763.54..13763.75 rows=2 width=8) (actual time=912.096..912.098 rows=1 loops=1) Workers Planned: 2 Workers Launched: 0 -> Partial Aggregate (cost=12763.54..12763.55 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=912.095..912.096 rows=1 loops=1) -> Parallel Seq Scan on test_tab (cost=0.00..12758.33 rows=2083 width=0) (actual time=0.022..812.253 rows=999995 loops=1) Filter: (((a)::numeric >= 5.0) AND ((a)::numeric <= 999999.0)) Rows Removed by Filter: 5 [2] ExecutePlan() { .... /* * Set up parallel mode if appropriate. * * Parallel mode only supports complete execution of a plan. If we've * already partially executed it, or if the caller asks us to exit early, * we must force the plan to run without parallelism. */ if (queryDesc->already_executed || numberTuples != 0) use_parallel_mode = false; else use_parallel_mode = queryDesc->plannedstmt->parallelModeNeeded; } -- Regards, Dilip Kumar Google -
Re: [PATCH] Allow parallelism for plpgsql return expression after commit 556f7b7
Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> — 2025-07-04T16:26:29Z
Dilip Kumar <dilipbalaut@gmail.com> writes: > On Fri, Jul 4, 2025 at 1:22 AM Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote: >> There's no initplan in the given test case, so I don't see how >> that idea is going to fix it. Also, allowing initplans to begin >> parallelism when the outer query isn't using parallelism seems >> like it'd be fraught with problems. It certainly couldn't be >> something we'd back-patch. > If you see the original problematic case[1] shown by dipesh, where the > parallel plan is selected for the initPlan1 but it could not launch > the worker because of the below check[2] in ExecutePlan. So here my > concern was that the number of "max tuple" was passed for the top > level plan, however the parallelism is restricted for the InitPlan as > well. Oh, looking back, I see that indeed the original example happened to produce a plan that involves an initplan. But there are plenty of variants that won't, such as the arguably-more-idiomatic return count(*) from test_tab where a between 5.0 and 999999.0; So I think your emphasis on improving that case is misplaced to start with. > If I understand the code comments correctly, they state that "Parallel > mode only supports complete execution of a plan." Given that > "InitPlan1" does run to completion, it seems the issue here is that > when the top-level plan isn't fully executed, it restricts parallelism > for its sub-plans or init-plans, even if those sub-plans are running > to completion. I repeat that I don't think "allow an initplan to run in parallel even if the outer query can't" is a particularly sane way to tackle this problem. For starters, ExecutorRun calls EnterParallelMode() and ExitParallelMode() globally for the entire query. We'd have to rethink how that works and when it would be safe to call those. Using the query-global estate->es_use_parallel_mode flag wouldn't work either. Thought would also be needed about which can't-do-parallelism restrictions would be safe to override. I agree that an outer numberTuples restriction needn't be considered, but I'm not sure that any others could be ignored. So on the whole it seems like a research project requiring nontrivial effort and probably yielding only marginal gains. It's certainly not going to yield a back-patchable fix for this performance regression. regards, tom lane
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Re: [PATCH] Allow parallelism for plpgsql return expression after commit 556f7b7
Dilip Kumar <dilipbalaut@gmail.com> — 2025-07-05T05:26:19Z
On Fri, Jul 4, 2025 at 9:56 PM Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote: > > Dilip Kumar <dilipbalaut@gmail.com> writes: > > On Fri, Jul 4, 2025 at 1:22 AM Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote: > >> There's no initplan in the given test case, so I don't see how > >> that idea is going to fix it. Also, allowing initplans to begin > >> parallelism when the outer query isn't using parallelism seems > >> like it'd be fraught with problems. It certainly couldn't be > >> something we'd back-patch. > > > If you see the original problematic case[1] shown by dipesh, where the > > parallel plan is selected for the initPlan1 but it could not launch > > the worker because of the below check[2] in ExecutePlan. So here my > > concern was that the number of "max tuple" was passed for the top > > level plan, however the parallelism is restricted for the InitPlan as > > well. > > Oh, looking back, I see that indeed the original example happened to > produce a plan that involves an initplan. But there are plenty of > variants that won't, such as the arguably-more-idiomatic > > return count(*) from test_tab where a between 5.0 and 999999.0; > > So I think your emphasis on improving that case is misplaced to start > with. > > > If I understand the code comments correctly, they state that "Parallel > > mode only supports complete execution of a plan." Given that > > "InitPlan1" does run to completion, it seems the issue here is that > > when the top-level plan isn't fully executed, it restricts parallelism > > for its sub-plans or init-plans, even if those sub-plans are running > > to completion. > > I repeat that I don't think "allow an initplan to run in parallel even > if the outer query can't" is a particularly sane way to tackle this > problem. For starters, ExecutorRun calls EnterParallelMode() and > ExitParallelMode() globally for the entire query. We'd have to > rethink how that works and when it would be safe to call those. > Using the query-global estate->es_use_parallel_mode flag wouldn't work > either. Thought would also be needed about which can't-do-parallelism > restrictions would be safe to override. I agree that an outer > numberTuples restriction needn't be considered, but I'm not sure that > any others could be ignored. > > So on the whole it seems like a research project requiring nontrivial > effort and probably yielding only marginal gains. It's certainly not > going to yield a back-patchable fix for this performance regression. Yeah that's correct. -- Regards, Dilip Kumar Google
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Re: [PATCH] Allow parallelism for plpgsql return expression after commit 556f7b7
Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> — 2025-07-07T18:36:53Z
Dilip Kumar <dilipbalaut@gmail.com> writes: > On Fri, Jul 4, 2025 at 9:56 PM Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote: >> So on the whole it seems like a research project requiring nontrivial >> effort and probably yielding only marginal gains. It's certainly not >> going to yield a back-patchable fix for this performance regression. > Yeah that's correct. OK. I pushed the one-liner (plus comment) fix. If anyone does feel like looking into allowing subplans to run in parallel in this context, it's not stopping them from doing so. regards, tom lane