Re: Summary function for pg_buffercache

Aleksander Alekseev <aleksander@timescale.com>

From: Aleksander Alekseev <aleksander@timescale.com>
To: pgsql-hackers <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Cc: Melih Mutlu <m.melihmutlu@gmail.com>
Date: 2022-09-09T14:36:45Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers

Attachments

Hi Melih,

> I would appreciate any feedback/comment on this change.

Another benefit of pg_buffercache_summary() you didn't mention is that
it allocates much less memory than pg_buffercache_pages() does.

Here is v3 where I added this to the documentation. The patch didn't
apply to the current master branch with the following error:

```
pg_buffercache_pages.c:286:19: error: no member named 'rlocator' in
'struct buftag'
                if (bufHdr->tag.rlocator.relNumber != InvalidOid)
                    ~~~~~~~~~~~ ^
1 error generated.
```

I fixed this too. Additionally, the patch was pgindent'ed and some
typos were fixed.

However I'm afraid you can't examine BufferDesc's without taking
locks. This is explicitly stated in buf_internals.h:

"""
Buffer header lock (BM_LOCKED flag) must be held to EXAMINE or change
TAG, state or wait_backend_pgprocno fields.
"""

Let's consider this code again (this is after my fix):

```
if (RelFileNumberIsValid(BufTagGetRelNumber(bufHdr))) {
 /* ... */
}
```

When somebody modifies relNumber concurrently (e.g. calls
ClearBufferTag()) this will cause an undefined behaviour.

I suggest we focus on saving the memory first and then think about the
performance, if necessary.

-- 
Best regards,
Aleksander Alekseev

Commits

  1. pg_buffercache: Add pg_buffercache_summary()

  2. Revert 56-bit relfilenode change and follow-up commits.