Re: Windows buildfarm members vs. new async-notify isolation test

On 12/8/19 11:57 AM, Tom Lane wrote:
> I wrote:
>> So, just idly looking at the code in src/backend/port/win32/signal.c
>> and src/port/kill.c, I have to wonder why we have this baroque-looking
>> design of using *two* signal management threads. And, if I'm
>> reading it right, we create an entire new pipe object and an entire
>> new instance of the second thread for each incoming signal. Plus, the
>> signal senders use CallNamedPipe (hence, underneath, TransactNamedPipe)
>> which means they in effect wait for the recipient's signal-handling
>> thread to ack receipt of the signal. Maybe there's a good reason for
>> all this but it sure seems like a lot of wasted cycles from here.
> Here's a possible patch (untested by me) to get rid of the second thread
> and the new-pipe-for-every-request behavior. I believe that the existing
> logic may be based on Microsoft's "Multithreaded Pipe Server" example [1]
> or something similar, but that's based on an assumption that servicing
> a client request may take a substantial amount of time and it's worth
> handling requests concurrently. Neither point applies in this context.
>
> Doing it like this seems attractive to me because it gets rid of two
> different failure modes: inability to create a new thread and inability
> to create a new pipe handle. Now on the other hand, it means that
> inability to complete the read/write transaction with a client right
> away will delay processing of other signals. But we know that the
> client is engaged in a CallNamedPipe operation, so how realistic is
> that concern?
>
> This is to be applied on top of the other patch I just sent.
>
> regards, tom lane
>
> [1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/ipc/multithreaded-pipe-server

Patch 1 fixed the problems on frogmouth.

Patch 2 also ran without incident.

tests run on REL_10_STABLE

cheers

andrew

--
Andrew Dunstan https://www.2ndQuadrant.com
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