Two small bugs in guc.c

Started by Tom Laneabout 2 years ago2 messages
#1Tom Lane
tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us
1 attachment(s)

I investigated the report at [1]/messages/by-id/CAK30z9T9gaF_isNquccZxi7agXCSjPjMsFXiifmkfu4VpZguxw@mail.gmail.com about pg_file_settings not reporting
invalid values of "log_connections". It turns out it's broken for
PGC_BACKEND and PGC_SU_BACKEND parameters, but not other ones.
The cause is a bit of premature optimization in this logic:

* If a PGC_BACKEND or PGC_SU_BACKEND parameter is changed in
* the config file, we want to accept the new value in the
* postmaster (whence it will propagate to
* subsequently-started backends), but ignore it in existing
* backends. ...

Upon detecting that case, set_config_option just returns -1 immediately
without bothering to validate the value. It should check for invalid
input before returning -1, which we can mechanize with a one-line fix:

-                    return -1;
+                    changeVal = false;

While studying this, I also noted that the bit to prevent changes in
parallel workers seems seriously broken:

if (IsInParallelMode() && changeVal && action != GUC_ACTION_SAVE)
ereport(elevel,
(errcode(ERRCODE_INVALID_TRANSACTION_STATE),
errmsg("cannot set parameters during a parallel operation")));

This is evidently assuming that ereport() won't return, which seems
like a very dubious assumption given the various values that elevel
can have. Maybe it's accidentally true -- I don't recall any
reports of trouble here -- but it sure looks fragile.

Hence, proposed patch attached.

regards, tom lane

[1]: /messages/by-id/CAK30z9T9gaF_isNquccZxi7agXCSjPjMsFXiifmkfu4VpZguxw@mail.gmail.com

Attachments:

v1-fix-set_config_option-logic-bugs.patchtext/x-diff; charset=us-ascii; name=v1-fix-set_config_option-logic-bugs.patchDownload
diff --git a/src/backend/utils/misc/guc.c b/src/backend/utils/misc/guc.c
index 959a1c76bf..4126b90ad7 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/misc/guc.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/misc/guc.c
@@ -3412,9 +3412,12 @@ set_config_with_handle(const char *name, config_handle *handle,
 	 * Other changes might need to affect other workers, so forbid them.
 	 */
 	if (IsInParallelMode() && changeVal && action != GUC_ACTION_SAVE)
+	{
 		ereport(elevel,
 				(errcode(ERRCODE_INVALID_TRANSACTION_STATE),
 				 errmsg("cannot set parameters during a parallel operation")));
+		return -1;
+	}
 
 	/* if handle is specified, no need to look up option */
 	if (!handle)
@@ -3513,7 +3516,9 @@ set_config_with_handle(const char *name, config_handle *handle,
 				 * postmaster (whence it will propagate to
 				 * subsequently-started backends), but ignore it in existing
 				 * backends.  This is a tad klugy, but necessary because we
-				 * don't re-read the config file during backend start.
+				 * don't re-read the config file during backend start.  Handle
+				 * this by clearing changeVal but continuing, since we do want
+				 * to report incorrect values.
 				 *
 				 * In EXEC_BACKEND builds, this works differently: we load all
 				 * non-default settings from the CONFIG_EXEC_PARAMS file
@@ -3526,7 +3531,7 @@ set_config_with_handle(const char *name, config_handle *handle,
 				 * applies.
 				 */
 				if (IsUnderPostmaster && !is_reload)
-					return -1;
+					changeVal = false;
 			}
 			else if (context != PGC_POSTMASTER &&
 					 context != PGC_BACKEND &&
#2Tristan Partin
tristan@neon.tech
In reply to: Tom Lane (#1)
Re: Two small bugs in guc.c

On Tue Dec 26, 2023 at 1:02 PM CST, Tom Lane wrote:

I investigated the report at [1] about pg_file_settings not reporting
invalid values of "log_connections". It turns out it's broken for
PGC_BACKEND and PGC_SU_BACKEND parameters, but not other ones.
The cause is a bit of premature optimization in this logic:

* If a PGC_BACKEND or PGC_SU_BACKEND parameter is changed in
* the config file, we want to accept the new value in the
* postmaster (whence it will propagate to
* subsequently-started backends), but ignore it in existing
* backends. ...

Upon detecting that case, set_config_option just returns -1 immediately
without bothering to validate the value. It should check for invalid
input before returning -1, which we can mechanize with a one-line fix:

-                    return -1;
+                    changeVal = false;

While studying this, I also noted that the bit to prevent changes in
parallel workers seems seriously broken:

if (IsInParallelMode() && changeVal && action != GUC_ACTION_SAVE)
ereport(elevel,
(errcode(ERRCODE_INVALID_TRANSACTION_STATE),
errmsg("cannot set parameters during a parallel operation")));

This is evidently assuming that ereport() won't return, which seems
like a very dubious assumption given the various values that elevel
can have. Maybe it's accidentally true -- I don't recall any
reports of trouble here -- but it sure looks fragile.

Hence, proposed patch attached.

Looks good to me.

--
Tristan Partin
Neon (https://neon.tech)