Re: update with no changes - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Andres Freund
Subject Re: update with no changes
Date
Msg-id DC2AAA3B-A175-4920-AB44-3E3C7AE51075@anarazel.de
Whole thread Raw
In response to update with no changes  (Marcos Pegoraro <marcos@f10.com.br>)
Responses Re: update with no changes
List pgsql-hackers
Hi,

On November 19, 2021 8:38:25 AM PST, Marcos Pegoraro <marcos@f10.com.br> wrote:
>Why this happens ?
>
>create table t(i int);
>CREATE TABLE
>insert into t values(1);
>INSERT 0 1
>select (ctid::text::point)[1]::int, * from t;
> ctid | i
>------+---
>    1 | 1
>(1 row)
>update t set i = i;
>UPDATE 1
>select (ctid::text::point)[1]::int, * from t;
> ctid | i
>------+---
>    2 | 1
>(1 row)
>
>If nothing was changed, why create a new record, append data to wal, set
>old record as deleted, etc, etc ?

You can't just skip doing updates without causing problems. An update basically acquires an exclusive row lock (which
inturn prevents foreign key references from being removed etc). Just skipping that would cause a lot of new deadlocks
andcorrectness issues. 

There's also cases where people intentionally perform updates to move records around etc.

Regards,

Andres
--
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.



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