From 7930f6ac213b9145489c4e9253872c8bb4fb5855 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nathan Bossart <nathan@postgresql.org>
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2025 10:12:14 -0500
Subject: [PATCH v1 1/1] autovacuum: order tables by (m)xid age

---
 src/backend/postmaster/autovacuum.c | 47 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
 src/tools/pgindent/typedefs.list    |  1 +
 2 files changed, 41 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/postmaster/autovacuum.c b/src/backend/postmaster/autovacuum.c
index fb5d3b27224..aeef28abd67 100644
--- a/src/backend/postmaster/autovacuum.c
+++ b/src/backend/postmaster/autovacuum.c
@@ -309,6 +309,12 @@ static AutoVacuumShmemStruct *AutoVacuumShmem;
 static dlist_head DatabaseList = DLIST_STATIC_INIT(DatabaseList);
 static MemoryContext DatabaseListCxt = NULL;
 
+typedef struct
+{
+	Oid			oid;
+	uint32		age;
+} TableToProcess;
+
 /*
  * Dummy pointer to persuade Valgrind that we've not leaked the array of
  * avl_dbase structs.  Make it global to ensure the compiler doesn't
@@ -1888,6 +1894,15 @@ get_database_list(void)
 	return dblist;
 }
 
+static int
+TableToProcessComparator(const ListCell *a, const ListCell *b)
+{
+	TableToProcess *t1 = (TableToProcess *) lfirst(a);
+	TableToProcess *t2 = (TableToProcess *) lfirst(b);
+
+	return pg_cmp_u32(t2->age, t1->age);
+}
+
 /*
  * Process a database table-by-table
  *
@@ -1901,7 +1916,7 @@ do_autovacuum(void)
 	HeapTuple	tuple;
 	TableScanDesc relScan;
 	Form_pg_database dbForm;
-	List	   *table_oids = NIL;
+	List	   *tables_to_process = NIL;
 	List	   *orphan_oids = NIL;
 	HASHCTL		ctl;
 	HTAB	   *table_toast_map;
@@ -2055,9 +2070,17 @@ do_autovacuum(void)
 								  effective_multixact_freeze_max_age,
 								  &dovacuum, &doanalyze, &wraparound);
 
-		/* Relations that need work are added to table_oids */
+		/* Relations that need work are added to tables_to_process */
 		if (dovacuum || doanalyze)
-			table_oids = lappend_oid(table_oids, relid);
+		{
+			TableToProcess *table = palloc(sizeof(TableToProcess));
+
+			table->oid = relid;
+			table->age = recentXid - classForm->relfrozenxid;
+			table->age = Max(table->age, recentMulti - classForm->relminmxid);
+
+			tables_to_process = lappend(tables_to_process, table);
+		}
 
 		/*
 		 * Remember TOAST associations for the second pass.  Note: we must do
@@ -2149,7 +2172,15 @@ do_autovacuum(void)
 
 		/* ignore analyze for toast tables */
 		if (dovacuum)
-			table_oids = lappend_oid(table_oids, relid);
+		{
+			TableToProcess *table = palloc(sizeof(TableToProcess));
+
+			table->oid = relid;
+			table->age = recentXid - classForm->relfrozenxid;
+			table->age = Max(table->age, recentMulti - classForm->relminmxid);
+
+			tables_to_process = lappend(tables_to_process, table);
+		}
 
 		/* Release stuff to avoid leakage */
 		if (free_relopts)
@@ -2273,6 +2304,8 @@ do_autovacuum(void)
 		MemoryContextSwitchTo(AutovacMemCxt);
 	}
 
+	list_sort(tables_to_process, TableToProcessComparator);
+
 	/*
 	 * Optionally, create a buffer access strategy object for VACUUM to use.
 	 * We use the same BufferAccessStrategy object for all tables VACUUMed by
@@ -2301,9 +2334,9 @@ do_autovacuum(void)
 	/*
 	 * Perform operations on collected tables.
 	 */
-	foreach(cell, table_oids)
+	foreach_ptr(TableToProcess, table, tables_to_process)
 	{
-		Oid			relid = lfirst_oid(cell);
+		Oid			relid = table->oid;
 		HeapTuple	classTup;
 		autovac_table *tab;
 		bool		isshared;
@@ -2534,7 +2567,7 @@ deleted:
 		pg_atomic_test_set_flag(&MyWorkerInfo->wi_dobalance);
 	}
 
-	list_free(table_oids);
+	list_free_deep(tables_to_process);
 
 	/*
 	 * Perform additional work items, as requested by backends.
diff --git a/src/tools/pgindent/typedefs.list b/src/tools/pgindent/typedefs.list
index 02b5b041c45..1abfc338760 100644
--- a/src/tools/pgindent/typedefs.list
+++ b/src/tools/pgindent/typedefs.list
@@ -3004,6 +3004,7 @@ TableScanDesc
 TableScanDescData
 TableSpaceCacheEntry
 TableSpaceOpts
+TableToProcess
 TablespaceList
 TablespaceListCell
 TapeBlockTrailer
-- 
2.39.5 (Apple Git-154)