Horton

Re: index prefetching

Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>

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From: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
To: Peter Geoghegan <pg@bowt.ie>
Cc: Tomas Vondra <tomas@vondra.me>, Alexandre Felipe <o.alexandre.felipe@gmail.com>, Thomas Munro <thomas.munro@gmail.com>, Nazir Bilal Yavuz <byavuz81@gmail.com>, Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>, Melanie Plageman <melanieplageman@gmail.com>, PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org>, Georgios <gkokolatos@protonmail.com>, Konstantin Knizhnik <knizhnik@garret.ru>, Dilip Kumar <dilipbalaut@gmail.com>
Date: 2026-04-04T05:33:32Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers 
Hi,

On 2026-04-04 01:21:53 -0400, Andres Freund wrote:

> > +StaticAssertDecl(INDEX_SCAN_MAX_BATCHES <= PG_UINT8_MAX + 1,
> > +				 "INDEX_SCAN_MAX_BATCHES must fit in uint8 ring buffer indexes");
> 
> I'd just use a < without the + 1 on the other side :)

Actually, I think there are actual issues around this. Once you set
INDEX_SCAN_MAX_BATCHES to 256, there are a lot of, justified looking,
warnings.

[1/1 1 100%] Compiling C object src/backend/postgres_lib.a.p/access_heap_heapam_handler.c.o
In file included from ../../../../../home/andres/src/postgresql/src/include/access/heapam.h:19,
                 from ../../../../../home/andres/src/postgresql/src/backend/access/heap/heapam_handler.c:23:
../../../../../home/andres/src/postgresql/src/include/access/relscan.h: In function 'index_scan_batch_full':
../../../../../home/andres/src/postgresql/src/include/access/relscan.h:488:45: warning: comparison is always false due to limited range of data type [-Wtype-limits]
  488 |         return index_scan_batch_count(scan) == INDEX_SCAN_MAX_BATCHES;
      |                                             ^~


I'm also not sure this is actually quite right

/*
 * Do we already have a batch loaded at 'idx' offset in scan's ring buffer?
 *
 * NOTE: a stale batch idx can alias a currently-loaded range after uint8
 * overflow, producing a false positive.  False negatives are not possible.
 */
static inline bool
index_scan_batch_loaded(IndexScanDescData *scan, uint8 idx)
{
	return (int8) (idx - scan->batchringbuf.headBatch) >= 0 &&
		(int8) (idx - scan->batchringbuf.nextBatch) < 0;
}

once the differences between the values don't fit into an int8 anymore. But
I'm tired.

Greetings,

Andres Freund

Commits

  1. read stream: Split decision about look ahead for AIO and combining

  2. read_stream: Only increase read-ahead distance when waiting for IO

  3. aio: io_uring: Trigger async processing for large IOs

  4. heapam: Keep buffer pins across index scan resets.

  5. heapam: Track heap block in IndexFetchHeapData.

  6. Move heapam_handler.c index scan code to new file.

  7. Rename heapam_index_fetch_tuple argument for clarity.

  8. Optimize fast-path FK checks with batched index probes

  9. read_stream: Prevent distance from decaying too quickly

  10. read_stream: Issue IO synchronously while in fast path

  11. bufmgr: Return whether WaitReadBuffers() needed to wait

  12. aio: io_uring: Allow IO methods to check if IO completed in the background

  13. bufmgr: Make UnlockReleaseBuffer() more efficient

  14. Add fake LSN support to hash index AM.

  15. Make IndexScanInstrumentation a pointer in executor scan nodes.

  16. Use fake LSNs to improve nbtree dropPin behavior.

  17. Move fake LSN infrastructure out of GiST.

  18. Use simplehash for backend-private buffer pin refcounts.

  19. nbtree: Avoid allocating _bt_search stack.

  20. bufmgr: Fix use of wrong variable in GetPrivateRefCountEntrySlow()

  21. Conditional locking in pgaio_worker_submit_internal

  22. Reduce ExecSeqScan* code size using pg_assume()

  23. Fix rare bug in read_stream.c's split IO handling.

  24. Remove HeapBitmapScan's skip_fetch optimization

  25. Optimize nbtree backwards scans.

  26. Fix multiranges to behave more like dependent types.

  27. Add EXPLAIN (MEMORY) to report planner memory consumption

  28. Optimize nbtree backward scan boundary cases.

  29. Increment xactCompletionCount during subtransaction abort.

  30. Add nbtree Valgrind buffer lock checks.

  31. Add nbtree high key "continuescan" optimization.

  32. Reduce pinning and buffer content locking for btree scans.

  33. Teach btree to handle ScalarArrayOpExpr quals natively.