Re: [HACKERS] PATCH: Keep one postmaster monitoring pipe per process

Hi,

I'd like to disentangle two related topics.  For "I want
PostmasterIsAlive() to go faster using signals on platforms that can
support that", please see over here:

https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/7261eb39-0369-f2f4-1bb5-62f3b6083b5e@iki.fi#7261eb39-0369-f2f4-1bb5-62f3b6083b5e@iki.fi

For "I want to fix all the code that ignores the WL_POSTMASTER_DEATH
event and then calls PostmasterIsAlive() every time through its loop,
or fails to detect postmaster death at all", this is the thread
(unless someone sees a reason to reentangle them).

Here's a draft patch that does that.  One contentious question is:
should you have to opt *in* to auto-exit-on-postmaster death?  Andres
opined that you should.  I actually think it's not so bad if you don't
have to do that, and instead have to opt out.  I think of it as a kind
of 'process cancellation point' or a quiet PANIC that you can opt out
of.  It's nice to remove the old boilerplate code without having to
add a new boilerplate event that you have to remember every time.  Any
other opinions?

I'm not sure if the exit(1) vs proc_exit(1) distinction is important.

-- 
Thomas Munro
http://www.enterprisedb.com