Previously, isolationtester displayed SQL query results using some
ad-hoc code that clearly hadn't had much effort expended on it.
Field values longer than 14 characters weren't separated from
the next field, and usually caused misalignment of the columns
too. Also there was no visual separation of a query's result
from subsequent isolationtester output. This made test result
files confusing and hard to read.
To improve matters, let's use libpq's PQprint() function. Although
that's long since unused by psql, it's still plenty good enough
for the purpose here.
Like 741d7f104, back-patch to all supported branches, so that this
isn't a stumbling block for back-patching isolation test changes.
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/582362.1623798221@sss.pgh.pa.us
SSI's HeapCheckForSerializableConflictOut() test failed to correctly
handle conditions involving a concurrently inserted tuple which is later
concurrently updated by a separate transaction . A SELECT statement
that called HeapCheckForSerializableConflictOut() could end up using the
same XID (updater's XID) for both the original tuple, and the successor
tuple, missing the XID of the xact that created the original tuple
entirely. This only happened when neither tuple from the chain was
visible to the transaction's MVCC snapshot.
The observable symptoms of this bug were subtle. A pair of transactions
could commit, with the later transaction failing to observe the effects
of the earlier transaction (because of the confusion created by the
update to the non-visible row). This bug dates all the way back to
commit dafaa3ef, which added SSI.
To fix, make sure that we check the xmin of concurrently inserted tuples
that happen to also have been updated concurrently.
Author: Peter Geoghegan
Reported-By: Kyle Kingsbury
Reviewed-By: Thomas Munro
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/db7b729d-0226-d162-a126-8a8ab2dc4443@jepsen.io
Backpatch: All supported versions
Tom Lane
Peter Geoghegan