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Re: eliminate xl_heap_visible to reduce WAL (and eventually set VM on-access)

Tomas Vondra <tomas@vondra.me>

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From: Tomas Vondra <tomas@vondra.me>
To: Melanie Plageman <melanieplageman@gmail.com>
Cc: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>, Kirill Reshke <reshkekirill@gmail.com>, Chao Li <li.evan.chao@gmail.com>, Andrey Borodin <x4mmm@yandex-team.ru>, Xuneng Zhou <xunengzhou@gmail.com>, Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>, PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org>, Heikki Linnakangas <hlinnaka@iki.fi>
Date: 2026-03-25T23:29:03Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers 
On 3/25/26 19:54, Melanie Plageman wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 25, 2026 at 2:02 PM Tomas Vondra <tomas@vondra.me> wrote:
>>
>> 0002
>>
>> - Don't we usually keep "flags" as the last parameter? It seems a bit
>> weird that it's added in between relation and snapshot.
> 
> In an earlier review, Andres said he disliked using flags as the last
> parameter for index_beginscan() because its current last two
> parameters are integers (nkeys and norderbys), which could be
> confusing. Personally, I think you have to look at the function
> signature before just randomly passing stuff, and so it shouldn't
> matter -- but I didn't care enough to argue. If you agree with me that
> they should be last, then it's two against one and I'll change it back
> :) I can keep the callsite comments naming the flags parameter.
> 

Who am I to argue with Andres? ;-) I'm kinda used to flags being the
last argument, but it's not something I'm particularly attached to.

>> - Do we really want to pass two sets of flags to table_beginscan_common?
>>  I realize it's done to ensure "users" don't use internal flags, but
>> then maybe it'd be better to do that check in the places calling the
>> _common? Someone adding a new caller can break this in various ways
>> anyway, e.g. by setting bits in the internal flags, no?
> 
> Yes, callers of table_beginscan_common() could pass flags they
> shouldn't in internal_flags. But I was mostly trying to prevent the
> case where a user picks a flag that overlaps with an internal flag,
> conditionally passes it as a user flag, and then when they test for it
> in their AM-specific code, they aren't actually checking if their own
> flag is set.
> 

Ah, so we expect people to invent their "own" flags, outside what's in
ScanOptions? Or do I misunderstand how it works? (I admit not reading
the whole massive thread, as I was only interested in using the flags in
my own patch.)

> Anyway, it's not hard to move:
>     Assert((flags & SO_INTERNAL_FLAGS) == 0);
> into the table_beginscan_common() callers and then pass the internal
> flags the caller wants to pass + the user specified flags to
> table_beginscan_common(). And I think that fixes what you are talking
> about?
> 

Right. I wouldn't say it "fixes" it, because it wasn't a bug. But it
does ensure the two sets do not "overlap", which I assume should never
happen.

>> If we want to have these checks, should we be more thorough? Should we
>> check the internal flags only set internal flags?
> 
> That's easy enough too.
> Assert((internal_flags & ~SO_INTERNAL_FLAGS) == 0); I think does the trick.
> 
> I think this would largely be the same as having
> table_beginscan_common() callers validate that the user-passed flags
> are not internal and then OR them together with the internal flags
> they want to pass to table_beginscan_common().
> 
> I'm trying to think of cases where the two approaches would differ so
> I can decide which to do.
> 

OK


-- 
Tomas Vondra

Commits

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

  1. Stabilize btree_gist test against on-access VM setting

  2. Stabilize plancache test against on-access VM setting

  3. Make local buffers pin limit more conservative

  4. Update FSM during prune/freeze replay even if freespace is zero

  5. Pass down information on table modification to scan nodes

  6. Thread flags through begin-scan APIs

  7. Remove PlannedStmt->resultRelations in favor of resultRelationRelids

  8. Make it cheap to check if a relation is modified by a query

  9. Keep newest live XID up-to-date even if page not all-visible

  10. Add pruning fast path for all-visible and all-frozen pages

  11. Detect and fix visibility map corruption in more cases

  12. Save vmbuffer in heap-specific scan descriptors for on-access pruning

  13. Avoid BufferGetPage() calls in heap_update()

  14. Initialize missing fields in CreateExecutorState()

  15. Prefix PruneState->all_{visible,frozen} with set_

  16. Add PageGetPruneXid() helper

  17. Move commonly used context into PruneState and simplify helpers

  18. Remove table_scan_analyze_next_tuple unneeded parameter OldestXmin

  19. Simplify visibility check in heap_page_would_be_all_visible()

  20. Rename LVRelState VM-related logging counters

  21. Fix flakiness in the pg_visibility VM-only vacuum test by using a temporary table.

  22. Refactor lazy_scan_prune() VM clear logic into helper

  23. Eliminate use of cached VM value in lazy_scan_prune()

  24. Combine visibilitymap_set() cases in lazy_scan_prune()

  25. Fix const qualification in prune_freeze_setup()

  26. Simplify vacuum visibility assertion

  27. Split heap_page_prune_and_freeze() into helpers

  28. Assert that cutoffs are provided if freezing will be attempted

  29. Split PruneFreezeParams initializers to one field per line

  30. Refactor heap_page_prune_and_freeze() parameters into a struct

  31. Make heap_page_is_all_visible independent of LVRelState

  32. Inline TransactionIdFollows/Precedes[OrEquals]()

  33. Add helper for freeze determination to heap_page_prune_and_freeze

  34. Bump XLOG_PAGE_MAGIC after xl_heap_prune change

  35. Correct prune WAL record opcode name in comment

  36. Add error codes when vacuum discovers VM corruption

  37. Remove unused xl_heap_prune member, reason

  38. Remove unneeded VM pin from VM replay

  39. Add assert and log message to visibilitymap_set

  40. Stamp HEAD as 19devel.

  41. Add error codes to some corruption log messages