Re: BUG #17619: AllocSizeIsValid violation in parallel hash join

Thomas, I think I know what is going on, and it is happening in
sts_puttuple when it needs to write 32760 bytes exacly. All references
below a taken in the tag REL_13_8.

Lets say that we enter sts_puttuple and on line 321 we compute a size
<https://github.com/postgres/postgres/blob/4bc493d14409857090928ea51c02a20aba8db364/src/backend/utils/sort/sharedtuplestore.c#L321>
of 32760 bytes. Lets say that buffer is currently partially filled so a
write of this size would not fit.

We proceed to flush chunk on line 338, which resets the write pointer to 8
bytes past the start of SharedTuplestoreChunk, leaving exactly 32760 bytes
free.

We take the if on line 342
<https://github.com/postgres/postgres/blob/4bc493d14409857090928ea51c02a20aba8db364/src/backend/utils/sort/sharedtuplestore.c#L342>
(the
one with the comment "It still might not be enough space", and then proceed
to write whole 32760 bytes and reach the line 373 with size == 0.

It looks like this codepath is written with assumption that size >0 here
and sts_flush_chunk would be called immediately after inside the loop on
line 375. But because size == 0, loop will not execute, sts_flush_chunk
will not be called, and since we haven't updated write pointer so far, it
will stay at the beginning of the chunk. At this point we exit
sts_puttuple, and next call of sts_putttuple would overwrite the tuple we
just memcopied into the chank. If this new tuple is shorter, then remaining
part of the chunk would be garbage from the overwritten tuple.

I think >= on line 342 should be just > . I tried this change locally, and
it fixed the issue for me.

Do you agree with my analysis?

On Thu, Sep 22, 2022 at 1:51 PM Dmitry Astapov <dastapov(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

>
>
> On Thu, Sep 22, 2022 at 9:44 AM Thomas Munro <thomas(dot)munro(at)gmail(dot)com>
> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, Sep 22, 2022 at 7:46 PM PG Bug reporting form
>> <noreply(at)postgresql(dot)org> wrote:
>> > (gdb) p size
>> > $2 = 1702125924
>>
>> Thanks for the detailed report. Hmm. That size, on a little-endian
>> system, is equivalent to the byte sequence "date\0\0\0\0", which looks
>> pretty suspiciously like the inside of a tuple, and not its size. We
>> must have got out of sync somehow.
>>
>
> Great catch! I added some debugging output to the BufFileRead and
> sts_read_tuple and it looks to me that the sequence of events immediately
> before the problem happens is like this:
>
>
> 1. sts_read_tuple is called multiple times to read from a particular
> file, and a bunch of tuples are read this way
> 2. sts_read_tuple is called once more. In my experiments, I always had
> read_ntuples_available - 2 == read_ntuples at this point, but maybe this is
> just a coincidence.
> 1. inside this sts_read_tuple_call, BufFileRead is called to read
> metadata, and succeeds (and this chunk of the file looks -- to my naive eye
> -- exactly like any other tuple start)
> 2. Second BufFileRead call happens to get the size, and reads the
> correct size (I see what's in the file, I could find corresponding values
> in the database tables, and it all lines up).
> 3. Third BufFileRead happens to read the actual tuple. So far so
> good, and sts_read_tuple finishes.
> 3. At this point, the position in the file (buf_file -> currOffset +
> post) points right after the last tuple read, but what's there does not
> look like the start of the next tuple to me. It seems like there was
> another, longer tuple written there before (with quite long rhs.payload
> value) and somehow the tuple that was just read was written over it, so we
> have "<tuple read on step 2 above><current read position here><what looks
> like leftovers from another tuple><a bunch of zeroes><new tuple start>"
> 4. So another sts_read_tuple call happens, and it reads 4 bytes of
> this garbage as metadata, and the next 4 bytes as length, and this is when
> everything derails...
>
> I also double-checked at the logs of the (test) database where this issue
> was first spotted (and where a lot of queries similar to the one I am using
> to trigger this issue are happening) and found out that along with "invalid
> memory alloc request size" we also got a couple of occasions of "Unexpected
> chunk in shared tuplestore temporary file. Expected overflow chunk", which
> looks like another error that could be potentially explained by
> BufFileRead's inside sts_read_tuple reading "garbage".
>
> I'm happy to build a patched version of 13.8 (or another revision if you
> want me to) to collect more debug information for you if this could help.
>
> --
> D. Astapov
>

--
D. Astapov