Re: "backend process" confused with "server process" - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Daniel Gustafsson
Subject Re: "backend process" confused with "server process"
Date
Msg-id 407E7510-CB91-4E46-B017-1BE769C7F434@yesql.se
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: "backend process" confused with "server process"  ("Andrey M. Borodin" <x4mmm@yandex-team.ru>)
Responses Re: "backend process" confused with "server process"
List pgsql-hackers
> On 15 Apr 2024, at 11:07, Andrey M. Borodin <x4mmm@yandex-team.ru> wrote:
>> On 15 Apr 2024, at 14:01, jian he <jian.universality@gmail.com> wrote:

>> "is not a PostgreSQL server process" is the same thing as "not a
>> PostgreSQL backend process”?
>
> As far as I understand, backend is something attached to frontend.
> There might be infrastructure processes like syslogger or stats collector, client can signal it too.

I think that's a good summary, in line with the glossary in our docs where we
define "Auxiliary process" and "Backend (process)" (but not PostgreSQL server
process which maybe we should?).  "PostgreSQL server process" is used in copy
to/from error messaging as well in what seems to be a user-freindly way to say
"backend".  In the docs we mostly use "server process" to mean a process
running in the operating system on the server.  In a few places we use
"database server process" too when talking about backends.

In the case of pg_log_backend_memory_contexts(), the function comment states
the following:

    "Signal a backend or an auxiliary process to log its memory contexts"

So in this case, "PostgreSQL server process" seems like the correct term.

--
Daniel Gustafsson




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