51.9. Logical Replication Message Formats
This section describes the detailed format of each logical replication message. These messages are returned either by the replication slot SQL interface or are sent by a walsender. In case of a walsender they are encapsulated inside the replication protocol WAL messages as described in Section 51.4 and generally obey same message flow as physical replication.
- Begin
- Byte1('B')
Identifies the message as a begin message.
- Int64
The final LSN of the transaction.
- Int64
Commit timestamp of the transaction. The value is in number of microseconds since Postgres Pro epoch (2000-01-01).
- Int32
Xid of the transaction.
- Message
- Byte1('M')
Identifies the message as a logical decoding message.
- Int32
Xid of the transaction (only present for streamed transactions). This field is available since protocol version 2.
- Int8
Flags; Either 0 for no flags or 1 if the logical decoding message is transactional.
- Int64
The LSN of the logical decoding message.
- String
The prefix of the logical decoding message.
- Int32
Length of the content.
- Byte
n
The content of the logical decoding message.
- Commit
- Byte1('C')
Identifies the message as a commit message.
- Int8
Flags; currently unused (must be 0).
- Int64
The LSN of the commit.
- Int64
The end LSN of the transaction.
- Int64
Commit timestamp of the transaction. The value is in number of microseconds since Postgres Pro epoch (2000-01-01).
- Origin
- Byte1('O')
Identifies the message as an origin message.
- Int64
The LSN of the commit on the origin server.
- String
Name of the origin.
Note that there can be multiple Origin messages inside a single transaction.
- Relation
- Byte1('R')
Identifies the message as a relation message.
- Int32
Xid of the transaction (only present for streamed transactions). This field is available since protocol version 2.
- Int32
ID of the relation.
- String
Namespace (empty string for
pg_catalog
).- String
Relation name.
- Int8
Replica identity setting for the relation (same as
relreplident
inpg_class
).- Int16
Number of columns.
Next, the following message part appears for each column (except generated columns):
- Int8
Flags for the column. Currently can be either 0 for no flags or 1 which marks the column as part of the key.
- String
Name of the column.
- Int32
ID of the column's data type.
- Int32
Type modifier of the column (
atttypmod
).
- Type
- Byte1('Y')
Identifies the message as a type message.
- Int32
Xid of the transaction (only present for streamed transactions). This field is available since protocol version 2.
- Int32
ID of the data type.
- String
Namespace (empty string for
pg_catalog
).- String
Name of the data type.
- Insert
- Byte1('I')
Identifies the message as an insert message.
- Int32
Xid of the transaction (only present for streamed transactions). This field is available since protocol version 2.
- Int32
ID of the relation corresponding to the ID in the relation message.
- Byte1('N')
Identifies the following TupleData message as a new tuple.
- TupleData
TupleData message part representing the contents of new tuple.
- Update
- Byte1('U')
Identifies the message as an update message.
- Int32
Xid of the transaction (only present for streamed transactions). This field is available since protocol version 2.
- Int32
ID of the relation corresponding to the ID in the relation message.
- Byte1('K')
Identifies the following TupleData submessage as a key. This field is optional and is only present if the update changed data in any of the column(s) that are part of the REPLICA IDENTITY index.
- Byte1('O')
Identifies the following TupleData submessage as an old tuple. This field is optional and is only present if table in which the update happened has REPLICA IDENTITY set to FULL.
- TupleData
TupleData message part representing the contents of the old tuple or primary key. Only present if the previous 'O' or 'K' part is present.
- Byte1('N')
Identifies the following TupleData message as a new tuple.
- TupleData
TupleData message part representing the contents of a new tuple.
The Update message may contain either a 'K' message part or an 'O' message part or neither of them, but never both of them.
- Delete
- Byte1('D')
Identifies the message as a delete message.
- Int32
Xid of the transaction (only present for streamed transactions). This field is available since protocol version 2.
- Int32
ID of the relation corresponding to the ID in the relation message.
- Byte1('K')
Identifies the following TupleData submessage as a key. This field is present if the table in which the delete has happened uses an index as REPLICA IDENTITY.
- Byte1('O')
Identifies the following TupleData message as an old tuple. This field is present if the table in which the delete happened has REPLICA IDENTITY set to FULL.
- TupleData
TupleData message part representing the contents of the old tuple or primary key, depending on the previous field.
The Delete message may contain either a 'K' message part or an 'O' message part, but never both of them.
- Truncate
- Byte1('T')
Identifies the message as a truncate message.
- Int32
Xid of the transaction (only present for streamed transactions). This field is available since protocol version 2.
- Int32
Number of relations
- Int8
Option bits for
TRUNCATE
: 1 forCASCADE
, 2 forRESTART IDENTITY
- Int32
ID of the relation corresponding to the ID in the relation message. This field is repeated for each relation.
The following messages (Stream Start, Stream Stop, Stream Commit, and Stream Abort) are available since protocol version 2.
- Stream Start
- Byte1('S')
Identifies the message as a stream start message.
- Int32
Xid of the transaction.
- Int8
A value of 1 indicates this is the first stream segment for this XID, 0 for any other stream segment.
- Stream Stop
- Byte1('E')
Identifies the message as a stream stop message.
- Stream Commit
- Byte1('c')
Identifies the message as a stream commit message.
- Int32
Xid of the transaction.
- Int8
Flags; currently unused (must be 0).
- Int64
The LSN of the commit.
- Int64
The end LSN of the transaction.
- Int64
Commit timestamp of the transaction. The value is in number of microseconds since PostgreSQL epoch (2000-01-01).
- Stream Abort
- Byte1('A')
Identifies the message as a stream abort message.
- Int32
Xid of the transaction.
- Int32
Xid of the subtransaction (will be same as xid of the transaction for top-level transactions).
The following message parts are shared by the above messages.
- TupleData
- Int16
Number of columns.
Next, one of the following submessages appears for each column (except generated columns):
- Byte1('n')
Identifies the data as NULL value.
Or
- Byte1('u')
Identifies unchanged TOASTed value (the actual value is not sent).
Or
- Byte1('t')
Identifies the data as text formatted value.
Or
- Byte1('b')
Identifies the data as binary formatted value.
- Int32
Length of the column value.
- Byte
n
The value of the column, either in binary or in text format. (As specified in the preceding format byte).
n
is the above length.