Re: [PATCHES] patches for 6.2.1p6

>
> Hi hackers,
>
> I have old patches for version 6.2.1p6 which fix some problems and add
> new features. Here is a short description of each patch file:
>
>
> assert.patch
>
> adds a switch to turn on/off the assert checking if enabled at compile
> time. You can now compile postgres with assert checking and disable it
> at runtime in a production environment.
>
> async-unlisten.patch
>
> declares Async_Unlisten() external so that it can be called by user
> modules.
>
> exec-limit.patch
>
> removes the #ifdef NOT_USED around ExecutorLimit(). It is used.
>
> exitpg.patch
>
> limits recursive calls to exitpg() preventing an infinite loop
> if an error is found inside exitpg.
>
> libpgtcl-listen.patch
>
> Just a change from upper to lowercase of an sql command in libpgtcl,
> totally harmless.
>
> new-locks.patch
>
> After long studying and many debugging sessions I have finally
> understood how the low level locks work.
> I have completely rewritten lock.c cleaning up the code and adding
> better assert checking. I have also added some fields to the lock
> and xid tags for better support of user locks. This patch includes
> also a patch submitted by Bruce Momjian which changes the handling
> of lock priorities. It can however be disabled if an option is set
> in pg_options, see tprintf.patch (Bruce patch works by building
> the queue in reverse priority order, my old patch kept the queue in
> decreasing order and traversed it from the other side).
>
> pg-flush.patch
>
> removes an unnecessary flush in libpq reducing network traffic and
> increasing performance.
>
> relname.patch
>
> an utility which returns the relname corresponding to a given oid.
> Useful for debug messages (see vacum.patch).
>
> sequence.patch
>
> added a setval() function which enables othe owner of a sequence
> to set its value without need to delete and recreate it.
>
> sinval.patch
>
> fixes a problem in SI cache which causes table overflow if some
> backend is idle for a long time while other backends keep adding
> entries.
> It uses the new signal handling implemented in tprintf.patch.
> I have also increacasesed the max number of backends from 32 to 64 and
> the table size from 1000 to 5000.
>
> spin-lock.patch
>
> I'm not sure if this is really useful, but it seems stupid to have
> a backend wasting cpu cycles in a busy loop while the process which
> should release the lock is waiting for the cpu. So I added a call
> to process_yield() if the spin lock can't obtained.
> This has been implemented and tested only on Linux. I don't know if
> other OS have process_yield(). If someone can check please do it.
>
> tprintf.patch
>
> adds functions and macros which implement a conditional trace package
> with the ability to change flags and numeric options of running
> backends at runtime.
> Options/flags can be specified in the command line and/or read from
> the file pg_options in the data directory.
> Running backends can be forced to update their options from this file
> by sending them a SIGHUP signal (this is the convention used by most
> unix daemons so I changed the meaning of SIGHUP).
> Options can be debugging flags used by the trace package or any other
> numeric value used by the backend, for example the deadlock_timeout.
> Having flags and options specified at runtime and changed while the
> backends are running can greatly simplify the debugging and tuning
> of the database. New options can be defined in utils/misc/trace.c and
> include/utils/trace.h. As an example of the usage of this package
> see lock.c and proc.c which make use of new runtime options.
>
> Old files using int flags or variables can be easily changed to
> use the new package by substituting the old variable with a #define
> like in the following example:
>
> /* int my_flag = 0; */
> #include "trace.h"
> #define my_flag pg_options[OPT_MYFLAG]
>
> I have done it in postgres.c and some other files and now I can turn
> on/off any single debug flag on the fly with a simple shell script.
> I have removed the IpcConfigTip() from ipc.c, it should better be
> described in the postgres manual instead of being printed on stderr.
>
> This patch provides also a new format of debugging messages which
> are always in a single line with a timestamp and the backend pid:
>
> #timestamp #pid #message
> 980127.17:52:14.173 [29271] StartTransactionCommand
> 980127.17:52:14.174 [29271] ProcessUtility: drop table t;
> 980127.17:52:14.186 [29271] SIIncNumEntries: table is 70% full
> 980127.17:52:14.186 [29286] Async_NotifyHandler
> 980127.17:52:14.186 [29286] Waking up sleeping backend process
> 980127.19:52:14.292 [29286] Async_NotifyFrontEnd
> 980127.19:52:14.413 [29286] Async_NotifyFrontEnd done
> 980127.19:52:14.466 [29286] Async_NotifyHandler done
>
> This improves the readability of the log and allows one to understand
> exactly which backend is doing what and at which time. It also makes
> easier to write simple awk or perl scripts which monitor the log to
> detect database errors or problem, or to compute transaction times.
>
> The patch changes also the meaning of signals used by postgres, as
> described by the following table:
>
> postmaster backend
>
> SIGHUP kill(*,sighup) read_pg_options
> SIGINT kill(*,sigint), die die
> SIGCHLD reaper -
> SIGTTIN ignored -
> SIGTTOU ignored -
> SIGQUIT die handle_warn
> SIGTERM kill(*,sigterm), kill(*,9), die die
> SIGCONT dumpstatus -
> SIGPIPE ignored die
> SIGFPE - FloatExceptionHandler
> SIGTSTP - ignored (alive test)
> SIGUSR1 kill(*,sigusr1), die quickdie
> SIGUSR2 kill(*,sigusr2) Async_NotifyHandler
> (also SI buffer flush)
>
> The main changes to the old implementation are SIGQUIT instead of
> SIGHUP to handle warns, SIGHUP to reread pg_options and redirection
> to all backends of SIGHUP, SIGINT, SIGTERM, SIGUSR1 and SIGUSR2.
> In this way some of the signals sent to the postmaster can be sent
> automatically to all the backends. To shut down postgres one needs
> only to send a SIGTERM to postmaster and it will stop automatically
> all the backends. This new signal handling mechanism is also used
> to prevent SI cache table overflows: when a backend detects the SI
> table full at 70% it simply sends a signal to the postmaster which
> will wake up all idle backends and make them flush the cache.
>
> vacuum.patch
>
> adds a debug message to vacuum that prints the name of a table or
> index *before* vacuuming it, if the verbose keyword is set.
> This is useful to know which table is causing troubles if a
> vacuum all crashes. Currently table information is printed only
> at the end of each vacuum operation and is never printed if the
> vacuum crashes.
>
> --
> Massimo Dal Zotto

Massimo, now that 6.3 is released, any chance of getting these patches
against the 6.3 source code?

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