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Re: Buffer locking is special (hints, checksums, AIO writes)

Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>

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From: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
To: Antonin Houska <ah@cybertec.at>
Cc: Kirill Reshke <reshkekirill@gmail.com>, Heikki Linnakangas <hlinnaka@iki.fi>, Melanie Plageman <melanieplageman@gmail.com>, Matthias van de Meent <boekewurm+postgres@gmail.com>, pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org, Thomas Munro <thomas.munro@gmail.com>, Noah Misch <noah@leadboat.com>, Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>, Michael Paquier <michael.paquier@gmail.com>
Date: 2026-02-10T16:49:36Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers 
Hi,

On 2026-02-10 08:46:27 +0100, Antonin Houska wrote:
> Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de> wrote:
> > I think we ought to instead restrict the page-at-a-time scans to only happen
> > with "real" mvcc snapshots. I.e. this:
> > 
> > 	/*
> > 	 * Disable page-at-a-time mode if it's not a MVCC-safe snapshot.
> > 	 */
> > 	if (!(snapshot && IsMVCCSnapshot(snapshot)))
> > 		scan->rs_base.rs_flags &= ~SO_ALLOW_PAGEMODE;
> >
> > should trigger for historic snapshots as well.
> 
> I suppose you mean changing it to
> 
> 	if (!(snapshot && IsMVCCSnapshot(snapshot) &&
> 		  !IsHistoricMVCCSnapshot(snapshot)))
> 		scan->rs_base.rs_flags &= ~SO_ALLOW_PAGEMODE;

Yes.

For something committable, I think we should probably split IsMVCCSnapshot
into IsMVCCSnapshot(), just accepting SNAPSHOT_MVCC, and IsMVCCLikeSnapshot()
accepting both SNAPSHOT_MVCC and SNAPSHOT_HISTORIC_MVCC. And then go through
all the existing callers of IsMVCCSnapshot() - only about half should stay
as-is, I think.


> > Does that fix the issue for you?
> 
> Yes, with this change, I don't hit the problem anymore.

Great!

Greetings,

Andres Freund

Commits

Same data as JSON: GET /api/v1/messages/:b64id/commits the thread's linked commits as JSON, with link sources. API reference →

  1. bufmgr: Fix ordering of checks in PinBuffer()

  2. Use UnlockReleaseBuffer() in more places

  3. bufmgr: Make UnlockReleaseBuffer() more efficient

  4. bufmgr: Don't copy pages while writing out

  5. Fix use of wrong variable in _hash_kill_items()

  6. Fix bug due to confusion about what IsMVCCSnapshot means

  7. bufmgr: Switch to standard order in MarkBufferDirtyHint()

  8. bufmgr: Remove the, now obsolete, BM_JUST_DIRTIED

  9. Require share-exclusive lock to set hint bits and to flush

  10. heapam: Don't mimic MarkBufferDirtyHint() in inplace updates

  11. bufmgr: Allow conditionally locking of already locked buffer

  12. bufmgr: Avoid spurious compiler warning after fcb9c977aa5

  13. lwlock: Remove ForEachLWLockHeldByMe

  14. lwlock: Remove support for disowned lwlwocks

  15. bufmgr: Implement buffer content locks independently of lwlocks

  16. bufmgr: Change BufferDesc.state to be a 64-bit atomic

  17. lwlock: Improve local variable name

  18. lwlock: Invert meaning of LW_FLAG_RELEASE_OK

  19. bufmgr: Make definitions related to buffer descriptor easier to modify

  20. heapam: Add batch mode mvcc check and use it in page mode

  21. freespace: Don't modify page without any lock

  22. heapam: Move logic to handle HEAP_MOVED into a helper function

  23. bufmgr: Optimize & harmonize LockBufHdr(), LWLockWaitListLock()

  24. bufmgr: Add one-entry cache for private refcount

  25. bufmgr: Separate keys for private refcount infrastructure

  26. Add pg_atomic_unlocked_write_u64

  27. Rename BUFFERPIN wait event class to BUFFER

  28. bufmgr: Turn BUFFER_LOCK_* into an enum

  29. lwlock: Fix, currently harmless, bug in LWLockWakeup()

  30. bufmgr: Use atomic sub for unpinning buffers

  31. bufmgr: Allow some buffer state modifications while holding header lock

  32. bufmgr: Fix valgrind checking for buffers pinned in StrategyGetBuffer()

  33. bufmgr: Don't lock buffer header in StrategyGetBuffer()

  34. bufmgr: fewer calls to BufferDescriptorGetContentLock

  35. bufmgr: Fix signedness of mask variable in BufferSync()

  36. bufmgr: Introduce FlushUnlockedBuffer

  37. Improve ReadRecentBuffer() scalability