Re: [HACKERS] Runtime Partition Pruning

On 2018/04/13 1:57, Robert Haas wrote:
>> It might be possible to do something better in each module by keeping
>> an array indexed by RTI which have each entry NULL initially then on
>> first relation_open set the element in the array to that pointer.
> 
> I'm not sure that makes a lot of sense in the planner, but in the
> executor it might be a good idea.   See also
> https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CA%2BTgmoYKToP4-adCFFRNrO21OGuH%3Dphx-fiB1dYoqksNYX6YHQ%40mail.gmail.com
> for related discussion.  I think that a coding pattern where we rely
> on relation_open(..., NoLock) is inherently dangerous -- it's too easy
> to be wrong about whether the lock is sure to have been taken.  It
> would be much better to open the relation once and hold onto the
> pointer, not just for performance reasons, but for robustness.

About the specific relation_open(.., NoLock) under question, I think there
might be a way to address this by opening the tables with the appropriate
lock mode in partitioned_rels list in ExecLockNonleafAppendTables and
keeping the Relation pointers around until ExecEndNode.  Then instead of
ExecSetupPartitionPruneState doing relation_open/close(.., NoLock), it
just reuses the one that's passed by the caller.

Attached a PoC patch.  David, thoughts?

Thanks,
Amit