Re: sync request forward function ForwardSyncRequest() might hang for some time in a corner case?

On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 9:59 PM Paul Guo <paulguo@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 7:11 PM Julien Rouhaud <rjuju123@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, May 25, 2021 at 4:39 PM Paul Guo <paulguo@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi hackers,
> > >
> > > I found this when reading the related code. Here is the scenario:
> > >
> > > bool
> > > RegisterSyncRequest(const FileTag *ftag, SyncRequestType type,
> > >                     bool retryOnError)
> > >
> > > For the case retryOnError is true, the function would in loop call
> > > ForwardSyncRequest() until it succeeds, but in ForwardSyncRequest(),
> > > we can see if we run into the below branch, RegisterSyncRequest() will
> > > need to loop until the checkpointer absorbs the existing requests so
> > > ForwardSyncRequest() might hang for some time until a checkpoint
> > > request is triggered. This scenario seems to be possible in theory
> > > though the chance is not high.
> >
> > It seems like a really unlikely scenario, but maybe possible if you
> > use a lot of unlogged tables maybe (as you could eventually
> > dirty/evict more than NBuffers buffers without triggering enough WALs
> > activity to trigger a checkpoint with any sane checkpoint
> > configuration).
>
> RegisterSyncRequest() handles SYNC_UNLINK_REQUEST and
> SYNC_FORGET_REQUEST scenarios, besides the usual SYNC_REQUEST type for
> buffer sync.
>
> > > ForwardSyncRequest():
> > >
> > >     if (CheckpointerShmem->checkpointer_pid == 0 ||
> > >         (CheckpointerShmem->num_requests >= CheckpointerShmem->max_requests &&
> > >          !CompactCheckpointerRequestQueue()))
> > >     {
> > >         /*
> > >          * Count the subset of writes where backends have to do their own
> > >          * fsync
> > >          */
> > >         if (!AmBackgroundWriterProcess())
> > >             CheckpointerShmem->num_backend_fsync++;
> > >         LWLockRelease(CheckpointerCommLock);
> > >         return false;
> > >     }
> > >
> > > One fix is to add below similar code in RegisterSyncRequest(), trigger
> > > a checkpoint for the scenario.
> > >
> > > // checkpointer_triggered: variable for one trigger only.
> > > if (!ret && retryOnError && ProcGlobal->checkpointerLatch &&
> > > !checkpointer_triggered)
> > >         SetLatch(ProcGlobal->checkpointerLatch);
> > >
> > > Any comments?
> >
> > It looks like you intended to set the checkpointer_triggered var but
>
> Yes this is just pseduo code.
>
> > didn't.  Also this will wake up the checkpointer but won't force a
> > checkpoint (unlike RequestCheckpoint()).  It may be a good thing
>
> I do not expect an immediate checkpoint. AbsorbSyncRequests()
> is enough since after that RegisterSyncRequest() could finish.
>
> > though as it would only absorb the requests and go back to sleep if no
> > other threshold is reachrf.  Apart from the implementation details it
> > seems like it could help in this unlikely event.
>

Also note that ForwardSyncRequest() does wake up the checkpointer if
it thinks the requests in shared memory are "too full", but does not
wake up when the request is actually full. This does not seem to be reasonable.
See below code in ForwardSyncRequest

    /* If queue is more than half full, nudge the checkpointer to empty it */
    too_full = (CheckpointerShmem->num_requests >=
                CheckpointerShmem->max_requests / 2);

    /* ... but not till after we release the lock */
    if (too_full && ProcGlobal->checkpointerLatch)
        SetLatch(ProcGlobal->checkpointerLatch);

-- 
Paul Guo (Vmware)