pgsql: Avoid taking a new snapshot for an immutable simple expression i - Mailing list pgsql-committers

From Tom Lane
Subject pgsql: Avoid taking a new snapshot for an immutable simple expression i
Date
Msg-id E1iYF8L-0003wE-6R@gemulon.postgresql.org
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Avoid taking a new snapshot for an immutable simple expression in plpgsql.

We already used this optimization if the plpgsql function is read-only.
But it seems okay to do it even in a read-write function, if the
expression contains only immutable functions/operators.  There would
only be a change of behavior if an "immutable" called function depends
on seeing database updates made during the current plpgsql function.
That's enough of a violation of the promise of immutability that anyone
who complains won't have much of a case.

The benefits are significant --- for simple cases like

  while i < 10000000
  loop
    i := i + 1;
  end loop;

I see net performance improvements around 45%.  Of course, real-world
cases won't get that much faster, but it ought to be noticeable.
At the very least, this removes much of the performance penalty that
used to exist for forgetting to mark a plpgsql function non-volatile.

Konstantin Knizhnik, reviewed by Pavel Stehule, cosmetic changes by me

Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/ed9da20e-01aa-d04b-d085-e6c16b14b9d7@postgrespro.ru

Branch
------
master

Details
-------
https://git.postgresql.org/pg/commitdiff/73b06cf893c9d3bb38c11878a12cc29407e78b6c

Modified Files
--------------
src/pl/plpgsql/src/pl_exec.c | 20 +++++++++++++++-----
src/pl/plpgsql/src/plpgsql.h |  1 +
2 files changed, 16 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)


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