45.8. Synchronous Replication Support for Logical Decoding
45.8.1. Overview
Logical decoding can be used to build synchronous replication solutions with the same user interface as synchronous replication for streaming replication. To do this, the streaming replication interface (see Section 45.3) must be used to stream out data. Clients have to send Standby status update (F)
(see Section 49.3) messages, just like streaming replication clients do.
Note
A synchronous replica receiving changes via logical decoding will work in the scope of a single database. Since, in contrast to that, synchronous_standby_names
currently is server wide, this means this technique will not work properly if more than one database is actively used.
45.8.2. Caveats
In synchronous replication setup, a deadlock can happen, if the transaction has locked [user] catalog tables exclusively. See Section 45.6.2 for information on user catalog tables. This is because logical decoding of transactions can lock catalog tables to access them. To avoid this users must refrain from taking an exclusive lock on [user] catalog tables. This can happen in the following ways:
Issuing an explicit
LOCK
onpg_class
in a transaction.Perform
CLUSTER
onpg_class
in a transaction.Executing
TRUNCATE
on [user] catalog table in a transaction.
Note that these commands that can cause deadlock apply to not only explicitly indicated system catalog tables above but also to any other [user] catalog table.