repack: clarify final phase of concurrent mode in file header comment

From: Chao Li <li(dot)evan(dot)chao(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: PostgreSQL-development <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: repack: clarify final phase of concurrent mode in file header comment
Date: 2026-04-16 03:32:40
Message-ID: 06F150E0-FDE9-4FC6-9EEF-79A759430471@gmail.com
Views: Whole Thread | Raw Message | Download mbox | Resend email
Thread:
Lists: pgsql-hackers

Hi,

The file header comment in repack.c briefly explains the workflow of concurrent mode as:

1. Lock the table with ShareUpdateExclusiveLock
2. Do an initial copy as non-concurrent mode
3. While the initial copy is going on, accumulates concurrent changes to a file
4. After the initial copy, read the file and re-apply the changes
5. Upgrade to AccessExclusiveLock and swap the relfilenodes

When I read the comment, I got confused at step 4. While that re-apply pass is running, concurrent changes can still occur, so what happens to those changes?

After reading the code, I see that there is actually an extra step after upgrading to AccessExclusiveLock to process the remaining changes.

I am afraid other readers may have the same confusion, so I am proposing this small patch to make the file header comment a bit clearer.

Best regards,
--
Chao Li (Evan)
HighGo Software Co., Ltd.
https://www.highgo.com/

Attachment Content-Type Size
v1-0001-repack-clarify-final-phase-of-concurrent-mode-in-.patch application/octet-stream 1.4 KB
unknown_filename text/plain 3 bytes

Browse pgsql-hackers by date

  From Date Subject
Next Message Fujii Masao 2026-04-16 03:34:40 Re: Use proc_exit() in WalRcvWaitForStartPosition
Previous Message Amit Langote 2026-04-16 03:08:19 Re: pg_overexplain produces invalid JSON with RANGE_TABLE option