If we have an array of records stored on disk, the individual record fields
cannot contain out-of-line TOAST pointers: the tuptoaster.c mechanisms are
only prepared to deal with TOAST pointers appearing in top-level fields of
a stored row. The same applies for ranges over composite types, nested
composites, etc. However, the existing code only took care of expanding
sub-field TOAST pointers for the case of nested composites, not for other
structured types containing composites. For example, given a command such
as
UPDATE tab SET arraycol = ARRAY[(ROW(x,42)::mycompositetype] ...
where x is a direct reference to a field of an on-disk tuple, if that field
is long enough to be toasted out-of-line then the TOAST pointer would be
inserted as-is into the array column. If the source record for x is later
deleted, the array field value would become a dangling pointer, leading
to errors along the line of "missing chunk number 0 for toast value ..."
when the value is referenced. A reproducible test case for this was
provided by Jan Pecek, but it seems likely that some of the "missing chunk
number" reports we've heard in the past were caused by similar issues.
Code-wise, the problem is that PG_DETOAST_DATUM() is not adequate to
produce a self-contained Datum value if the Datum is of composite type.
Seen in this light, the problem is not just confined to arrays and ranges,
but could also affect some other places where detoasting is done in that
way, for example form_index_tuple().
I tried teaching the array code to apply toast_flatten_tuple_attribute()
along with PG_DETOAST_DATUM() when the array element type is composite,
but this was messy and imposed extra cache lookup costs whether or not any
TOAST pointers were present, indeed sometimes when the array element type
isn't even composite (since sometimes it takes a typcache lookup to find
that out). The idea of extending that approach to all the places that
currently use PG_DETOAST_DATUM() wasn't attractive at all.
This patch instead solves the problem by decreeing that composite Datum
values must not contain any out-of-line TOAST pointers in the first place;
that is, we expand out-of-line fields at the point of constructing a
composite Datum, not at the point where we're about to insert it into a
larger tuple. This rule is applied only to true composite Datums, not
to tuples that are being passed around the system as tuples, so it's not
as invasive as it might sound at first. With this approach, the amount
of code that has to be touched for a full solution is greatly reduced,
and added cache lookup costs are avoided except when there actually is
a TOAST pointer that needs to be inlined.
The main drawback of this approach is that we might sometimes dereference
a TOAST pointer that will never actually be used by the query, imposing a
rather large cost that wasn't there before. On the other side of the coin,
if the field value is used multiple times then we'll come out ahead by
avoiding repeat detoastings. Experimentation suggests that common SQL
coding patterns are unaffected either way, though. Applications that are
very negatively affected could be advised to modify their code to not fetch
columns they won't be using.
In future, we might consider reverting this solution in favor of detoasting
only at the point where data is about to be stored to disk, using some
method that can drill down into multiple levels of nested structured types.
That will require defining new APIs for structured types, though, so it
doesn't seem feasible as a back-patchable fix.
Note that this patch changes HeapTupleGetDatum() from a macro to a function
call; this means that any third-party code using that macro will not get
protection against creating TOAST-pointer-containing Datums until it's
recompiled. The same applies to any uses of PG_RETURN_HEAPTUPLEHEADER().
It seems likely that this is not a big problem in practice: most of the
tuple-returning functions in core and contrib produce outputs that could
not possibly be toasted anyway, and the same probably holds for third-party
extensions.
This bug has existed since TOAST was invented, so back-patch to all
supported branches.
The new format accepts exactly the same data as the json type. However, it is
stored in a format that does not require reparsing the orgiginal text in order
to process it, making it much more suitable for indexing and other operations.
Insignificant whitespace is discarded, and the order of object keys is not
preserved. Neither are duplicate object keys kept - the later value for a given
key is the only one stored.
The new type has all the functions and operators that the json type has,
with the exception of the json generation functions (to_json, json_agg etc.)
and with identical semantics. In addition, there are operator classes for
hash and btree indexing, and two classes for GIN indexing, that have no
equivalent in the json type.
This feature grew out of previous work by Oleg Bartunov and Teodor Sigaev, which
was intended to provide similar facilities to a nested hstore type, but which
in the end proved to have some significant compatibility issues.
Authors: Oleg Bartunov, Teodor Sigaev, Peter Geoghegan and Andrew Dunstan.
Review: Andres Freund
and heap_deformtuple in favor of the newer functions heap_form_tuple et al
(which do the same things but use bool control flags instead of arbitrary
char values). Eliminate the former duplicate coding of these functions,
reducing the deprecated functions to mere wrappers around the newer ones.
We can't get rid of them entirely because add-on modules probably still
contain many instances of the old coding style.
Kris Jurka
get_func_arg_info() for consistency with other names there.
This code will probably be useful to other PLs when they start to
support OUT parameters, so better to have it in the main backend.
Also, fix plpgsql validator to detect bogus OUT parameters even when
check_function_bodies is off.
comment line where output as too long, and update typedefs for /lib
directory. Also fix case where identifiers were used as variable names
in the backend, but as typedefs in ecpg (favor the backend for
indenting).
Backpatch to 8.1.X.
the parameter's name (if any) as the default column name for SELECT FROM
the function, rather than the function name as previously. I still think
this is a bad idea, but I lost the argument. Force decompilation of
function RTEs to specify full aliases always, to reduce the odds of this
decision breaking dumped views.
and RelationNameGetTupleDesc() as deprecated; remove uses of the
latter in the contrib library. Along the way, clean up crosstab()
code and documentation a little.
of a composite type to get that type's OID as their second parameter,
in place of typelem which is useless. The actual changes are mostly
centralized in getTypeInputInfo and siblings, but I had to fix a few
places that were fetching pg_type.typelem for themselves instead of
using the lsyscache.c routines. Also, I renamed all the related variables
from 'typelem' to 'typioparam' to discourage people from assuming that
they necessarily contain array element types.
results with tuples as ordinary varlena Datums. This commit does not
in itself do much for us, except eliminate the horrid memory leak
associated with evaluation of whole-row variables. However, it lays the
groundwork for allowing composite types as table columns, and perhaps
some other useful features as well. Per my proposal of a few days ago.
to the table function, thus preventing memory leakage accumulation across
calls. This means that SRFs need to be careful to distinguish permanent
and local storage; adjust code and documentation accordingly. Patch by
Joe Conway, very minor tweaks by Tom Lane.
changes mentioned above, and also adds a new function to the tablefunc
API. The tablefunc API change adds the following function:
* Oid foidGetTypeId(Oid foid) - Get a function's typeid given the
* function Oid. Use this together with TypeGetTupleDesc() to get a
* TupleDesc which is derived from the function's declared return type.
In the next post I'll send the contrib/tablefunc patch, which
illustrates the usage of this new function. Also attached is a doc patch
for this change. The doc patch also adds a function that I failed to
document previously.
Joe Conway
Conway (BuildTupleFromCStrings sets NULL for pass-by-value types when
intended value is 0). It also implements some other improvements
suggested by Neil.
Joe Conway
Bruce Momjian
Tom Lane
Andrew Dunstan
Magnus Hagander
PostgreSQL Daemon