Re: Statistics Import and Export

Nathan Bossart <nathandbossart@gmail.com>

From: Nathan Bossart <nathandbossart@gmail.com>
To: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
Cc: Corey Huinker <corey.huinker@gmail.com>, Jeff Davis <pgsql@j-davis.com>, jian he <jian.universality@gmail.com>, Matthias van de Meent <boekewurm+postgres@gmail.com>, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>, Magnus Hagander <magnus@hagander.net>, Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net>, Ashutosh Bapat <ashutosh.bapat.oss@gmail.com>, Peter Smith <smithpb2250@gmail.com>, PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org>, alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org
Date: 2024-11-19T18:09:26Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers

Commits

Same data as JSON: GET /api/v1/messages/:b64id/commits the thread's linked commits as JSON, with link sources. API reference →
  1. Change pg_dump default for statistics export.

  2. pg_dump: Adjust reltuples from 0 to -1 for dumps of older versions.

  3. vacuumdb: Don't skip empty relations in --missing-stats-only mode.

  4. pg_dump: Fix query for gathering attribute stats on older versions.

  5. Prevent redeclaration of typedef TocEntry.

  6. Remove unused function parameters in pg_backup_archiver.c.

  7. pg_dump: Retrieve attribute statistics in batches.

  8. pg_dump: Reduce memory usage of dumps with statistics.

  9. Skip second WriteToc() call for custom-format dumps without data.

  10. Add relallfrozen to pg_dump statistics.

  11. Matview statistics depend on matview data.

  12. Add pg_dump --with-{schema|data|statistics} options.

  13. Stats: use schemaname/relname instead of regclass.

  14. CREATE INDEX: do update index stats if autovacuum=off.

  15. Don't convert to and from floats in pg_dump.

  16. CREATE INDEX: don't update table stats if autovacuum=off.

  17. Organize and deduplicate statistics import tests.

  18. Address stats export review comments.

  19. Address stats import review comments.

  20. Add relallfrozen to pg_class

  21. Fix pg_strtof() to not crash on NULL endptr.

  22. Use attnum to identify index columns in pg_restore_attribute_stats().

  23. pg_dump: prepare attribute stats query.

  24. Avoid unnecessary relation stats query in pg_dump.

  25. Remove redundant pg_set_*_stats() variants.

  26. Do not use in-place updates for statistics import.

  27. Fix confusion about data type of pg_class.relpages and relallvisible.

  28. Documentation fixups for dumping statistics.

  29. Trial fix for old cross-version upgrades.

  30. Transfer statistics during pg_upgrade.

  31. Lock table in ShareUpdateExclusive when importing index stats.

  32. Use in-place updates for pg_restore_relation_stats().

  33. Improve error message for replication of generated columns.

  34. pg_dump: Add dumpSchema and dumpData derivative flags.

  35. Disallow modifying statistics on system columns.

  36. Add missing CommandCounterIncrement() in stats import functions.

  37. Add functions pg_restore_relation_stats(), pg_restore_attribute_stats().

  38. Documentation fixup.

  39. Add functions pg_set_attribute_stats() and pg_clear_attribute_stats().

  40. Change pg_*_relation_stats() functions to return type to void.

  41. Disable autovacuum for tables in stats import tests.

  42. Allow pg_set_relation_stats() to set relpages to -1.

  43. Fixup for pg_set_relation_stats().

  44. Create functions pg_set_relation_stats, pg_clear_relation_stats.

  45. Add memory/disk usage for Window aggregate nodes in EXPLAIN.

  46. Improve performance of dumpSequenceData().

  47. Add INJECTION_POINT_CACHED() to run injection points directly from cache

  48. Improve performance of binary_upgrade_set_pg_class_oids().

  49. Improve assertion in mdwritev()

  50. CREATE INDEX: do not update stats during binary upgrade.

  51. Redefine pg_class.reltuples to be -1 before the first VACUUM or ANALYZE.

On Mon, Nov 18, 2024 at 08:42:35PM -0500, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> We can't design an API around who is going to be surprised.  We have to
> look at what the options say, what people would expect it to do, and
> what it does.  The reason "surprise" doesn't work in the long run is
> that while PG 18 users might be surprised, PG 20 users will be confused.

I think Bruce makes good points.  I'd add that even if we did nothing at
all for vacuumdb, folks who continued to use it wouldn't benefit from the
new changes, but they also shouldn't be harmed by it, either.

>> I, personally, would be fine if this only modified --analyze-in-stages, as it
>> already carries the warning:
> 
> Right, but I think we would need to rename the option to clarify what it
> does, e.g. --analyze-missing-in-stages.  If they use
> --analyze-in-stages, they will get an error, and will then need to
> reference the docs to see the new option wording, or we can suggest the
> new option in the error message.
> 
>> But others felt that --analyze-only should be in the mix as well.
> 
> Again, with those other people not saying so in this thread, I can't
> really comment on it --- I can only tell you what I have seen and others
> are going to have to explain why they want such dramatic changes.

I don't have a strong opinion here, but I suspect that if I was creating
vacuumdb from scratch, I'd have suggested a --missing-only flag that would
only work for --analyze-only/--analyze-in-stages.  That way, folks can
still regenerate statistics if they want, but we also have an answer for
folks who use pg_upgrade and have extended statistics.

-- 
nathan