Re: Strange Windows problem, lock_timeout test request

From: Boszormenyi Zoltan <zb(at)cybertec(dot)at>
To: Stephen Frost <sfrost(at)snowman(dot)net>
Cc: Hari Babu <haribabu(dot)kommi(at)huawei(dot)com>, 'Craig Ringer' <craig(at)2ndQuadrant(dot)com>, 'Hans-Jürgen Schönig' <hs(at)cybertec(dot)at>, 'Ants Aasma' <ants(at)cybertec(dot)at>, 'Tom Lane' <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>, 'PostgreSQL Hackers' <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>, 'Amit kapila' <amit(dot)kapila(at)huawei(dot)com>
Subject: Re: Strange Windows problem, lock_timeout test request
Date: 2013-02-24 15:14:41
Message-ID: 512A2E61.7080303@cybertec.at
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2013-02-24 15:03 keltezéssel, Stephen Frost írta:
> * Boszormenyi Zoltan (zb(at)cybertec(dot)at) wrote:
>> 2013-02-24 03:23 keltezéssel, Stephen Frost írta:
>>> No, it isn't. Patches posted to the list should be in context diff
>>> format (and uncompressed unless it's too large) for easier reading.
>>> That avoids having to download it, apply it to a git tree and then
>>> create the diff ourselves. Indeed, the move to git had impact on this
>>> at all.
>> I remembered this mail from The Master(tm):
>> http://www.postgresql.org/message-id/21555.1339866293@sss.pgh.pa.us
> Which matches exactly what I was saying- context diff provides easier
> readind for review purposes, which is presumably what you were looking
> to have happen when you posted this patch to the mailing list. And it's
> still the documented expectation and project policy, regardless of any
> individual's email. If we're going to change it, then the
> documentation, et al, should be updated as well.
>
> For my 2c, I still prefer context diffs posted to the mailing lists,
> but would also like to see more people posting pull requests. That
> doesn't make it project policy though.
>
>> So, more than halfof the recently posted patches come
>> directly from "git diff". The preference has changed.
> No, more people have ignored the project policy than not- that doesn't
> say anything about the preference or what the policy is.
>
>>> lock_timeout_wait and lock_timeout_stmt_wait ?
>> Hm. How about without the "_wait" suffix?
>> Or lock_timeout vs statement_lock_timeout?
> I could live without the _wait suffix, but it occurs to me that none of
> these really indicate that statement_lock_timeout is an accumulated
> timeout. Perhaps it should say 'total lock wait timeout' or similar?
>
>> statement_timeout is the legacy behaviour, it should be kept.
>> It's behaviour is well understood: the statement finishes under
>> the specified time or it throws an error. The problem from the
>> application point of view is that the error can happen while
>> the tuples are being transferred to the client, so the recordset
>> can be cut in half.
>>
>> "lock_timeout_stmt" (or lock_timeout_option = per_statement)
>> is somewhat extending the statement_timeout as only the
>> time waiting on locks are counted, so SELECT FOR UPDATE/etc.
>> may throw an error but if all rows are collected already, or
>> plain SELECT is run, the application gets them all.
>> This seems to follow the Microsoft SQL Server semantics:
>> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189470.aspx
> The documentation at that link appears to match what 'lock_timeout'
> would do. Note that it says 'a lock' here: "When a wait for a lock
> exceeds the time-out value, an error is returned.", or have you tested
> the actual behavior and seen it treat this value as an accumulated
> time across all lock waits for an entire statement?

(Note to myself: don't read with headache.)
I may have misread the MSDN link.

>
>> The per-lock lock_timeout was the result of a big Informix
>> project ported to PostgreSQL, this follows Informix semantics:
>> http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/idshelp/v10/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.sqls.doc/sqls788.htm
> I agree that the Informix command looks to be per-lock, but based on my
> simple reading of both documentation links, I think they're actually the
> same behavior and neither is about an accumulated time.

You seem to be right.

>> Because Timestamp[Tz] is microsecond resolution, and the timeout
>> GUCs are in milliseconds. Adding up time differences (and rounding
>> or truncating them to millisecond in the process) would make the
>> per-statement lock timeout lose precision...
> Removing the accumulation-based option would fix that.. :D

To call out the wrath of Tom? No, thanks. :-D
IIRC, he was the one who didn't like the per-lock behaviour
the first time he looked at this patch in an earlier form
back in 2010/2011 and he proposed this use case instead.
If not him, then someone else. I got the idea from this list...

Best regards,
Zoltán Böszörményi

--
----------------------------------
Zoltán Böszörményi
Cybertec Schönig & Schönig GmbH
Gröhrmühlgasse 26
A-2700 Wiener Neustadt, Austria
Web: http://www.postgresql-support.de
http://www.postgresql.at/

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