Skip WAL for new relfilenodes, under wal_level=minimal.

Until now, only selected bulk operations (e.g. COPY) did this.  If a
given relfilenode received both a WAL-skipping COPY and a WAL-logged
operation (e.g. INSERT), recovery could lose tuples from the COPY.  See
src/backend/access/transam/README section "Skipping WAL for New
RelFileNode" for the new coding rules.  Maintainers of table access
methods should examine that section.

To maintain data durability, just before commit, we choose between an
fsync of the relfilenode and copying its contents to WAL.  A new GUC,
wal_skip_threshold, guides that choice.  If this change slows a workload
that creates small, permanent relfilenodes under wal_level=minimal, try
adjusting wal_skip_threshold.  Users setting a timeout on COMMIT may
need to adjust that timeout, and log_min_duration_statement analysis
will reflect time consumption moving to COMMIT from commands like COPY.

Internally, this requires a reliable determination of whether
RollbackAndReleaseCurrentSubTransaction() would unlink a relation's
current relfilenode.  Introduce rd_firstRelfilenodeSubid.  Amend the
specification of rd_createSubid such that the field is zero when a new
rel has an old rd_node.  Make relcache.c retain entries for certain
dropped relations until end of transaction.

Back-patch to 9.5 (all supported versions).  This introduces a new WAL
record type, XLOG_GIST_ASSIGN_LSN, without bumping XLOG_PAGE_MAGIC.  As
always, update standby systems before master systems.  This changes
sizeof(RelationData) and sizeof(IndexStmt), breaking binary
compatibility for affected extensions.  (The most recent commit to
affect the same class of extensions was
089e4d405d0f3b94c74a2c6a54357a84a681754b.)

Kyotaro Horiguchi, reviewed (in earlier, similar versions) by Robert
Haas.  Heikki Linnakangas and Michael Paquier implemented earlier
designs that materially clarified the problem.  Reviewed, in earlier
designs, by Andrew Dunstan, Andres Freund, Alvaro Herrera, Tom Lane,
Fujii Masao, and Simon Riggs.  Reported by Martijn van Oosterhout.

Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/20150702220524.GA9392@svana.org

1 files changed, 11 insertions, 7 deletions

diff --git a/src/backend/access/transam/xlogutils.c b/src/backend/access/transam/xlogutils.c
index b217ffa52ff..6cb143e161d 100644
--- a/src/backend/access/transam/xlogutils.c
+++ b/src/backend/access/transam/xlogutils.c
@@ -549,6 +549,8 @@ typedef FakeRelCacheEntryData *FakeRelCacheEntry;
  * fields related to physical storage, like rd_rel, are initialized, so the
  * fake entry is only usable in low-level operations like ReadBuffer().
  *
+ * This is also used for syncing WAL-skipped files.
+ *
  * Caller must free the returned entry with FreeFakeRelcacheEntry().
  */
 Relation
@@ -557,18 +559,20 @@ CreateFakeRelcacheEntry(RelFileNode rnode)
 	FakeRelCacheEntry fakeentry;
 	Relation	rel;
 
-	Assert(InRecovery);
-
 	/* Allocate the Relation struct and all related space in one block. */
 	fakeentry = palloc0(sizeof(FakeRelCacheEntryData));
 	rel = (Relation) fakeentry;
 
 	rel->rd_rel = &fakeentry->pgc;
 	rel->rd_node = rnode;
-	/* We will never be working with temp rels during recovery */
+
+	/*
+	 * We will never be working with temp rels during recovery or while
+	 * syncing WAL-skipped files.
+	 */
 	rel->rd_backend = InvalidBackendId;
 
-	/* It must be a permanent table if we're in recovery. */
+	/* It must be a permanent table here */
 	rel->rd_rel->relpersistence = RELPERSISTENCE_PERMANENT;
 
 	/* We don't know the name of the relation; use relfilenode instead */
@@ -577,9 +581,9 @@ CreateFakeRelcacheEntry(RelFileNode rnode)
 	/*
 	 * We set up the lockRelId in case anything tries to lock the dummy
 	 * relation.  Note that this is fairly bogus since relNode may be
-	 * different from the relation's OID.  It shouldn't really matter though,
-	 * since we are presumably running by ourselves and can't have any lock
-	 * conflicts ...
+	 * different from the relation's OID.  It shouldn't really matter though.
+	 * In recovery, we are running by ourselves and can't have any lock
+	 * conflicts.  While syncing, we already hold AccessExclusiveLock.
 	 */
 	rel->rd_lockInfo.lockRelId.dbId = rnode.dbNode;
 	rel->rd_lockInfo.lockRelId.relId = rnode.relNode;