Re: datfrozenxid not dropping after vacuum

On 2021-Sep-01, Matthew Tice wrote:

[ problem table is pg_database ]

> My primary, read/write database is Postgresql 10.4 (CentOS 7) while my
> standby databases have been patched to 10.17.

Hmm, I think there was a bug in the early 10.x versions where advancing
the xid age of shared tables would not work correctly for some reason ...
Ah yes, this was fixed in 10.5, a mere three years ago:

Author: Andres Freund <andres(at)anarazel(dot)de>
Branch: master Release: REL_11_BR [a54e1f158] 2018-06-12 11:13:21 -0700
Branch: REL_10_STABLE Release: REL_10_5 [2ce64caaf] 2018-06-12 11:13:21 -0700
Branch: REL9_6_STABLE Release: REL9_6_10 [6a46aba1c] 2018-06-12 11:13:21 -0700
Branch: REL9_5_STABLE Release: REL9_5_14 [14b3ec6f3] 2018-06-12 11:13:21 -0700
Branch: REL9_4_STABLE Release: REL9_4_19 [817f9f9a8] 2018-06-12 11:13:22 -0700
Branch: REL9_3_STABLE Release: REL9_3_24 [9b9b622b2] 2018-06-12 11:13:22 -0700

Fix bugs in vacuum of shared rels, by keeping their relcache entries current.

When vacuum processes a relation it uses the corresponding relcache
entry's relfrozenxid / relminmxid as a cutoff for when to remove
tuples etc. Unfortunately for nailed relations (i.e. critical system
catalogs) bugs could frequently lead to the corresponding relcache
entry being stale.

This set of bugs could cause actual data corruption as vacuum would
potentially not remove the correct row versions, potentially reviving
them at a later point. After 699bf7d05c some corruptions in this vein
were prevented, but the additional error checks could also trigger
spuriously. Examples of such errors are:
ERROR: found xmin ... from before relfrozenxid ...
and
ERROR: found multixact ... from before relminmxid ...
To be caused by this bug the errors have to occur on system catalog
tables.

The two bugs are:

1) Invalidations for nailed relations were ignored, based on the
theory that the relcache entry for such tables doesn't
change. Which is largely true, except for fields like relfrozenxid
etc. This means that changes to relations vacuumed in other
sessions weren't picked up by already existing sessions. Luckily
autovacuum doesn't have particularly longrunning sessions.

2) For shared *and* nailed relations, the shared relcache init file
was never invalidated while running. That means that for such
tables (e.g. pg_authid, pg_database) it's not just already existing
sessions that are affected, but even new connections are as well.
That explains why the reports usually were about pg_authid et. al.

To fix 1), revalidate the rd_rel portion of a relcache entry when
invalid. This implies a bit of extra complexity to deal with
bootstrapping, but it's not too bad. The fix for 2) is simpler,
simply always remove both the shared and local init files.

Author: Andres Freund
Reviewed-By: Alvaro Herrera
Discussion:
https://postgr.es/m/20180525203736.crkbg36muzxrjj5e@alap3.anarazel.de
https://postgr.es/m/CAMa1XUhKSJd98JW4o9StWPrfS=11bPgG+_GDMxe25TvUY4Sugg@mail.gmail.com
https://postgr.es/m/CAKMFJucqbuoDRfxPDX39WhA3vJyxweRg_zDVXzncr6+5wOguWA@mail.gmail.com
https://postgr.es/m/CAGewt-ujGpMLQ09gXcUFMZaZsGJC98VXHEFbF-tpPB0fB13K+A@mail.gmail.com
Backpatch: 9.3-

--
Álvaro Herrera 39°49'30"S 73°17'W
"El número de instalaciones de UNIX se ha elevado a 10,
y se espera que este número aumente" (UPM, 1972)