Re: transction_timestamp() inside of procedures

On Tue, Oct 2, 2018 at 10:55:56AM +0200, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> On 28/09/2018 09:35, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> >> That's certainly a good argument. Note that if we implemented that the
> >> transaction timestamp is advanced inside procedures, that would also
> >> mean that the transaction timestamp as observed in pg_stat_activity
> >> would move during VACUUM, for example. That might or might not be
> >> desirable.
> >
> > Attached is a rough implementation.
> >
> > I'd be mildly in favor of doing this, but we have mentioned tradeoffs in
> > this thread.
>
> So do we want to do this or not?

I thought some more about this. I think there are a few issues:

1 Utility: since you can't use CALL in a transaction block, our
current code will always have transaction_timestamp() and
statement_timestamp() as identical in a procedure. Having
transaction_timestamp() advance on COMMIT gives users a new ability.

2 Surprise: What do people use transaction_timestamp() for and what
behavior would be most expected?

3 Other databases: How do other database systems handle this, and the
SQL standard?

Based on 1 and 2, I suggest we change transaction_timestamp() to advance
on COMMIT in procedure, and document this. I have no idea on #3.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

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