Re: BUG #2830: Wrong results for prepared statements while clustering target table - Mailing list pgsql-bugs

From Tom Lane
Subject Re: BUG #2830: Wrong results for prepared statements while clustering target table
Date
Msg-id 8738.1166310917@sss.pgh.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to BUG #2830: Wrong results for prepared statements while clustering target table  ("" <martin.pihlak@gmail.com>)
Responses Re: BUG #2830: Wrong results for prepared statements while clustering target table  ("Martin Pihlak" <martin.pihlak@gmail.com>)
Re: BUG #2830: Wrong results for prepared statements  ("Kevin Grittner" <Kevin.Grittner@wicourts.gov>)
List pgsql-bugs
"" <martin.pihlak@gmail.com> writes:
> Prepared SELECT/UPDATE/DELETE statements produce wrong results if executed
> while target table is being clustered.

The short answer is "don't CLUSTER while the table is in live use" ...

CLUSTER re-inserts all the rows in the table into a fresh table.  This
means that all the rows appear to have been inserted by the CLUSTER
transaction, and therefore that a transaction that scans the table
afterward with a snapshot taken before the CLUSTER committed will not
see those rows.

It'd be better if CLUSTER preserved the rows' MVCC state but don't hold
your breath for that; any such change is certainly not going to get
back-patched into stable releases.

The difference between EXECUTE and SELECT behavior here is just a chance
matter of exactly where the snap is taken during the parse/execute code
path --- your SELECT works because it blocks for AccessShareLock on the
table before it sets the snap.  But SELECT would fail just the same way
within a serializable transaction that had already set its snapshot.

            regards, tom lane

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