Re: Improving connection scalability: GetSnapshotData()

More review, since it sounds like you like it:

0006 - Boring. But I'd probably make this move both xmin and xid back,
with related comment changes; see also next comment.

0007 -

+ TransactionId xidCopy; /* this backend's xid, a copy of this proc's
+ ProcGlobal->xids[] entry. */

Can we please NOT put Copy into the name like that? Pretty please?

+ int pgxactoff; /* offset into various ProcGlobal-> arrays
+ * NB: can change any time unless locks held!
+ */

I'm going to add the helpful comment "NB: can change any time unless
locks held!" to every data structure in the backend that is in shared
memory and not immutable. No need, of course, to mention WHICH
locks...

On a related note, PROC_HDR really, really, really needs comments
explaining the locking regimen for the new xids field.

+ ProcGlobal->xids[pgxactoff] = InvalidTransactionId;

Apparently this array is not dense in the sense that it excludes
unused slots, but comments elsewhere don't seem to entirely agree.
Maybe the comments discussing how it is "dense" need to be a little
more precise about this.

+ for (int i = 0; i < nxids; i++)

I miss my C89. Yeah, it's just me.

- if (!suboverflowed)
+ if (suboverflowed)
+ continue;
+

Do we really need to do this kind of diddling in this patch? I mean
yes to the idea, but no to things that are going to make it harder to
understand what happened if this blows up.

+ uint32 TotalProcs = MaxBackends + NUM_AUXILIARY_PROCS + max_prepared_xacts;

/* ProcGlobal */
size = add_size(size, sizeof(PROC_HDR));
- /* MyProcs, including autovacuum workers and launcher */
- size = add_size(size, mul_size(MaxBackends, sizeof(PGPROC)));
- /* AuxiliaryProcs */
- size = add_size(size, mul_size(NUM_AUXILIARY_PROCS, sizeof(PGPROC)));
- /* Prepared xacts */
- size = add_size(size, mul_size(max_prepared_xacts, sizeof(PGPROC)));
- /* ProcStructLock */
+ size = add_size(size, mul_size(TotalProcs, sizeof(PGPROC)));

This seems like a bad idea. If we establish a precedent that it's OK
to have sizing routines that don't use add_size() and mul_size(),
people are going to cargo cult that into places where there is more
risk of overflow than there is here.

You've got a bunch of different places that talk about the new PGXACT
array and they are somewhat redundant yet without saying exactly the
same thing every time either. I think that needs cleanup.

One thing I didn't see is any clear discussion of what happens if the
two copies of the XID information don't agree with each other. That
should be added someplace, either in an appropriate code comment or in
a README or something. I *think* both are protected by the same locks,
but there's also some unlocked access to those structure members, so
it's not entirely a slam dunk.

...Robert