Re: [PATCH] pg_stat_activity: make slow/hanging authentication more visible

On Mon, Mar 17, 2025 at 10:22:47AM -0700, Jacob Champion wrote:
> I looked into switching over to pgstat_report_activity(), but that
> wasn't designed to be called in the middle of backend initialization.
> It would take more work to make those calls safe/sane when `st_state
> == STATE_STARTING`. I plan to mark this patchset as Withdrawn for now.

Okay, fine by me. I had the impression that it would have been
possible to salvage some of the wait event states, but at least the
starting state showing up in pg_stat_activity will be able to provide
some information, so it's better than none. Unfortunately, I don't
have any room until the feature freeze for that.

Outside the stat report activity calls, I've been wondering if we
should add some dynamic tracking of which hba/ident entry a backend
PID is working with. For example, if we knew the file and the entry
line number, we would know on which auth method this backend is
bumping into. That maybe of course limited if someone modifies and
reloads the HBA file while a backend is stuck. Now, these files are
mostly static, and we have system views that provide the contents of
the ident and HBA files as SQL, so with a JOIN..
--
Michael