pgsql: Use "transient" files for blind writes

Started by Alvaro Herreraalmost 15 years ago3 messageshackers
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#1Alvaro Herrera
alvherre@2ndquadrant.com

Use "transient" files for blind writes

"Blind writes" are a mechanism to push buffers down to disk when
evicting them; since they may belong to different databases than the one
a backend is connected to, the backend does not necessarily have a
relation to link them to, and thus no way to blow them away. We were
keeping those files open indefinitely, which would cause a problem if
the underlying table was deleted, because the operating system would not
be able to reclaim the disk space used by those files.

To fix, have bufmgr mark such files as transient to smgr; the lower
layer is allowed to close the file descriptor when the current
transaction ends. We must be careful to have any other access of the
file to remove the transient markings, to prevent unnecessary expensive
system calls when evicting buffers belonging to our own database (which
files we're likely to require again soon.)

Branch
------
master

Details
-------
http://git.postgresql.org/pg/commitdiff/54d9e8c6c19cbefa8fb42ed3442a0a5327590ed3

Modified Files
--------------
src/backend/storage/buffer/bufmgr.c | 10 +++-
src/backend/storage/file/fd.c | 108 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++--------
src/backend/storage/smgr/md.c | 9 +++
src/backend/storage/smgr/smgr.c | 17 ++++++
src/include/storage/fd.h | 1 +
src/include/storage/smgr.h | 2 +
6 files changed, 119 insertions(+), 28 deletions(-)

#2Tom Lane
tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us
In reply to: Alvaro Herrera (#1)
Re: pgsql: Use "transient" files for blind writes

Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org> writes:

Use "transient" files for blind writes

The buildfarm doesn't like this patch at all. Please revert, as we
do not have time to debug it before beta2.

regards, tom lane

#3Alvaro Herrera
alvherre@2ndquadrant.com
In reply to: Tom Lane (#2)
Re: pgsql: Use "transient" files for blind writes

Excerpts from Tom Lane's message of jue jun 09 17:05:11 -0400 2011:

Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org> writes:

Use "transient" files for blind writes

The buildfarm doesn't like this patch at all. Please revert, as we
do not have time to debug it before beta2.

Already done.

--
Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@commandprompt.com>
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