pgsql: Fix race condition in relcache init file invalidation.

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: pgsql-committers(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: pgsql: Fix race condition in relcache init file invalidation.
Date: 2011-08-16 17:13:10
Message-ID: E1QtNCQ-0003F1-Bc@gemulon.postgresql.org
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Fix race condition in relcache init file invalidation.

The previous code tried to synchronize by unlinking the init file twice,
but that doesn't actually work: it leaves a window wherein a third process
could read the already-stale init file but miss the SI messages that would
tell it the data is stale. The result would be bizarre failures in catalog
accesses, typically "could not read block 0 in file ..." later during
startup.

Instead, hold RelCacheInitLock across both the unlink and the sending of
the SI messages. This is more straightforward, and might even be a bit
faster since only one unlink call is needed.

This has been wrong since it was put in (in 2002!), so back-patch to all
supported releases.

Branch
------
REL8_4_STABLE

Details
-------
http://git.postgresql.org/pg/commitdiff/bcc9b17bbf92d1d94581d5536770b9689a767c37

Modified Files
--------------
src/backend/utils/cache/inval.c | 8 ++--
src/backend/utils/cache/relcache.c | 68 +++++++++++++++++++----------------
src/include/utils/relcache.h | 3 +-
3 files changed, 43 insertions(+), 36 deletions(-)

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