BUG #19490: Streaming standby on 16.14 stops applying WAL on MultiXactOffsetSLRU when primary is 16.8

The following bug has been logged on the website:

Bug reference: 19490
Logged by: Radim Marek
Email address: radim(at)boringsql(dot)com
PostgreSQL version: 16.14
Operating system: Linux - Ubuntu 22.04
Description:

Hello, 
due to a mistake we have run a higher minor version of 16.x against the
non-upgraded primary. This led to repeated issues on WAL processing.

Description:

A streaming replication standby running 16.14 stops advancing replay while
WAL keeps arriving from a 16.8 primary. The startup process is parked in
futex_wait_queue with wait_event = LWLock:MultiXactOffsetSLRU and no longer
makes progress.

pg_stat_slru shows zero MultiXact activity over the same window, so it
appears to stop on the lock itself rather than inside any SLRU read/write
path. Downgrading the standby binary to 16.12 (same data directory) resolved
the symptom under the same workload.

Configuration:

Primary running 16.8-1.pgdg22.04+1, we observed both loaded and "relatively"
idle (below 1000 QPS)
Replica: 16.14-1.pgdg22.04+1,  physical streaming, async, single replica on
16.14 due to misconfiguration, no cascading. Other replicas not affected
(running 16.8).

hot_standby_feedback enabled, logical replication from primary. default WAL
segment size. Default SLRU buffer sizes.

Observed symptoms on the standby

1. pg_stat_replication on primary, just the affected node

client_addr   state     sent_lag  write_lag  flush_lag  replay_lag_bytes
 replay_lag
10.x.x.x      streaming 0         0          0          8766784344      
 02:42:50

2. Receive/write/flush all at the primary's current LSN; only replay is far
behind and growing.

3. Startup process wait event on standby (sampled repeatedly, always
identical)pid    wait_event_type    wait_event             state
19095  LWLock             MultiXactOffsetSLRU    (null)

4. Kernel stack of the startup process
cat /proc/19095/stack
[<0>] futex_wait_queue+0x67/0xa0
[<0>] __futex_wait+0x155/0x1d0
[<0>] futex_wait+0x74/0x120
[<0>] do_futex+0x16d/0x230
[<0>] __x64_sys_futex+0x95/0x200
[<0>] x64_sys_call+0x117b/0x2480
[<0>] do_syscall_64+0x81/0x170
[<0>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x78/0x80
cat /proc/19095/wchan
futex_wait_queue

5. pg_stat_slru on the standby, after pg_stat_reset_slru(NULL) and a
60-second wait under live WAL streaming
name             blks_zeroed  blks_hit  blks_read  blks_written
MultiXactMember  0            0         0          0
MultiXactOffset  0            0         0          0

6. There was no MultiXact SLRU activity while the startup process is
reportedly waiting on the MultiXact offset SLRU lock.

7. Replay LSN frozen, receive LSN advancing. Sampled 60 sec apart.
recv             replay          lag_bytes
1476A/D1DA158    14767/EE01DB78  9111848416
1476A/EB565D0    14767/EE01DB78  9138571864

8. No replay progress; ~9 GB of WAL buffered locally that is never applied.

6. Other backends on the standby: only a diagnostic psql client. No
hot-standby readers. 

7. MultiXact age on the primary is small (~360k on most DBs, ~239k on the
main DB). No MultiXact storm.

Workarounds

- Restarting the standby cleared the block but once it caught up it repeated
again- Downgrading the standby binary to 16.12 (16.12-1.pgdg22.04+1) against
the same data directory restored normal replay. After 60s under the same
workload pg_stat_slru shows only 2 hits / 0 reads on MultiXact.

I understand that running 6 minor versions behind is not particulary good
setup, but given this being supported direction this might be worth at least
in 16.13/16.14 release notes.

---

Hope this helps,
Radim