patch review : Add ability to constrain backend temporary file space

Hello

here is a partial review of your patch, better than keeping it
sleeping in the commitfest queue I hope.

Submission review
================

* The patch is not in context diff format.
* The patch apply, but contains some extra whitespace.
* Documentation is here but not explicit about 'temp tables',
maybe worth adding that this won't limit temporary table size ?
* There is no test provided. One can be expected to check that the
feature work.

Code review
=========

* in fd.c, I think that "temporary_files_size -=
(double)vfdP->fileSize;" should be done later in the function once we
have successfully unlink the file, not before.

* I am not sure it is better to add a fileSize like you did or use
relationgetnumberofblock() when file is about to be truncated or
unlinked, this way the seekPos should be enough to increase the global
counter.

* temporary_files_size, I think it is better to have a number of pages
à la postgresql than a kilobyte size

* max_temp_files_size, I'll prefer an approach like shared_buffers
GUC: you can use pages, or KB, MB, ...

Simple Feature test
==============

either explain buffers is wrong or the patch is wrong:
cedric=# explain (analyze,buffers) select * from foo order by 1 desc ;
QUERY PLAN
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sort (cost=10260.02..10495.82 rows=94320 width=4) (actual
time=364.373..518.940 rows=100000 loops=1)
Sort Key: generate_series
Sort Method: external merge Disk: 1352kB
Buffers: local hit=393, temp read=249 written=249
-> Seq Scan on foo (cost=0.00..1336.20 rows=94320 width=4)
(actual time=0.025..138.754 rows=100000 loops=1)
Buffers: local hit=393
Total runtime: 642.874 ms
(7 rows)

cedric=# set max_temp_files_size to 1900;
SET
cedric=# explain (analyze,buffers) select * from foo order by 1 desc ;
ERROR: aborting due to exceeding max temp files size
STATEMENT: explain (analyze,buffers) select * from foo order by 1 desc ;
ERROR: aborting due to exceeding max temp files size

Do you have some testing method I can apply to track that without
explain (analyze, buffers) before going to low-level monitoring ?

Architecture review
==============

max_temp_files_size is used for the global space used per backend.
Based on how work_mem work I expect something like "work_disk" to
limit per file and maybe a backend_work_disk (and yes maybe a
backend_work_mem ?!) per backend.
So I propose to rename the current GUC to something like backend_work_disk.

Patch is not large and easy to read.
I like the idea and it sounds useful.

--
Cédric Villemain               2ndQuadrant
http://2ndQuadrant.fr/     PostgreSQL : Expertise, Formation et Support