pgsql: Remove assertion based on pending_since in pgstat_report_stat()

Remove assertion based on pending_since in pgstat_report_stat()

This assertion, based on pending_since (timestamp used to prevent stats
reports to be too frequent or should a partial flush happen), is reached
when it is found that no data can be flushed but a previous call of
pgstat_report_stat() determined that some stats data has been found as
in need of a flush. So pending_since is set when some stats data is
pending (in non-force mode) or if report attempts are too frequent, and
reset to 0 once all stats have been flushed.

Since 5cbbe70a9cc6, WAL senders have begun to report their stats on a
periodic basis for IO stats in v16~ and backend stats on HEAD, creating
some friction with the concurrent pgstat_report_stat() calls that can
happen in the context of a WAL sender (shutdown callback doing a final
report or backend-related code paths). This problem is the cause of
spurious failures in the TAP tests.

In theory, this assertion can be also reached in v15, even if that's
very unlikely. For example, a process, say a background worker, could
do periodic and direct stats flushes with concurrent calls of
pgstat_report_stat() that could cause conflicting values of
pending_since. This can be done with WAL or SLRU stats flushes using
pgstat_flush_wal() or pgstat_slru_flush(). HEAD makes this situation
easier to happen with custom cumulative stats.

This commit removes the assertion altogether, per discussion, as it is
more useful to keep the state of things as they are for the WAL sender.
The assertion could use a special state based on for example
am_walsender, but I doubt that this would be meaningful in the long run
based on the other arguments raised while discussing this issue.

Reported-by: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
Reported-by: Andres Freund <andres(at)anarazel(dot)de>
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/1489124.1744685908@sss.pgh.pa.us
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/dwrkeszz6czvtkxzr5mqlciy652zau5qqnm3cp5f3p2po74ppk@omg4g3cc6dgq
Backpatch-through: 15

Branch
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REL_15_STABLE

Details
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https://git.postgresql.org/pg/commitdiff/c1201ffcfbc1e934b37490a57a528d023230daf7

Modified Files
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src/backend/utils/activity/pgstat.c | 1 -
1 file changed, 1 deletion(-)