pgsql: Fix race condition in preparing a transaction for two-phase comm

From: Heikki Linnakangas <heikki(dot)linnakangas(at)iki(dot)fi>
To: pgsql-committers(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: pgsql: Fix race condition in preparing a transaction for two-phase comm
Date: 2014-05-15 14:18:11
Message-ID: E1WkwU7-0004Iv-72@gemulon.postgresql.org
Views: Raw Message | Whole Thread | Download mbox | Resend email
Thread:
Lists: pgsql-committers

Fix race condition in preparing a transaction for two-phase commit.

To lock a prepared transaction's shared memory entry, we used to mark it
with the XID of the backend. When the XID was no longer active according
to the proc array, the entry was implicitly considered as not locked
anymore. However, when preparing a transaction, the backend's proc array
entry was cleared before transfering the locks (and some other state) to
the prepared transaction's dummy PGPROC entry, so there was a window where
another backend could finish the transaction before it was in fact fully
prepared.

To fix, rewrite the locking mechanism of global transaction entries. Instead
of an XID, just have simple locked-or-not flag in each entry (we store the
locking backend's backend id rather than a simple boolean, but that's just
for debugging purposes). The backend is responsible for explicitly unlocking
the entry, and to make sure that that happens, install a callback to unlock
it on abort or process exit.

Backpatch to all supported versions.

Branch
------
master

Details
-------
http://git.postgresql.org/pg/commitdiff/bb38fb0d43c8d7ff54072bfd8bd63154e536b384

Modified Files
--------------
src/backend/access/transam/twophase.c | 169 ++++++++++++++++++++++++---------
src/backend/access/transam/xact.c | 19 +++-
src/include/access/twophase.h | 3 +
3 files changed, 144 insertions(+), 47 deletions(-)

Browse pgsql-committers by date

  From Date Subject
Next Message Heikki Linnakangas 2014-05-15 15:33:17 pgsql: Handle duplicate XIDs in txid_snapshot.
Previous Message Heikki Linnakangas 2014-05-15 11:58:02 pgsql: Misc message style and doc fixes.