Re: ERROR: ORDER/GROUP BY expression not found in targetlist

On Mon, Jun 13, 2016 at 03:42:49PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> I wrote:
> > ... there was also an unexplainable plan change:
> 
> > *** /home/postgres/pgsql/src/test/regress/expected/aggregates.out    Thu Apr  7 21:13:14 2016
> > --- /home/postgres/pgsql/src/test/regress/results/aggregates.out    Mon Jun 13 11:54:01 2016
> > ***************
> > *** 577,590 ****
>   
> >   explain (costs off)
> >     select max(unique1) from tenk1 where unique1 > 42000;
> > !                                 QUERY PLAN                                 
> > ! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > !  Result
> > !    InitPlan 1 (returns $0)
> > !      ->  Limit
> > !            ->  Index Only Scan Backward using tenk1_unique1 on tenk1
> > !                  Index Cond: ((unique1 IS NOT NULL) AND (unique1 > 42000))
> > ! (5 rows)
>   
> >   select max(unique1) from tenk1 where unique1 > 42000;
> >    max 
> > --- 577,588 ----
>   
> >   explain (costs off)
> >     select max(unique1) from tenk1 where unique1 > 42000;
> > !                      QUERY PLAN                     
> > ! ----------------------------------------------------
> > !  Aggregate
> > !    ->  Index Only Scan using tenk1_unique1 on tenk1
> > !          Index Cond: (unique1 > 42000)
> > ! (3 rows)
>   
> >   select max(unique1) from tenk1 where unique1 > 42000;
> >    max 
> 
> > I would not be surprised at a change to a parallel-query plan, but there's
> > no parallelism here, so what happened?  This looks like a bug to me.
> > (Also, doing this query without COSTS OFF shows that the newly selected
> > plan actually has a greater estimated cost than the expected plan, which
> > makes it definitely a bug.)
> 
> I looked into this and found that the costs are considered fuzzily the
> same, and then add_path prefers the slightly-worse path on the grounds
> that it is marked parallel_safe while the MinMaxAgg path is not.  It seems
> to me that there is some fuzzy thinking going on there.  On exactly what
> grounds is a path to be preferred merely because it is parallel safe, and
> not actually parallelized?  Or perhaps the question to ask is whether a
> MinMaxAgg path can be marked parallel-safe.

[Action required within 72 hours.  This is a generic notification.]

The above-described topic is currently a PostgreSQL 9.6 open item ("consider
whether MinMaxAggPath might fail to be parallel-safe").  Robert, since you
committed the patch believed to have created it, you own this open item.  If
some other commit is more relevant or if this does not belong as a 9.6 open
item, please let us know.  Otherwise, please observe the policy on open item
ownership[1] and send a status update within 72 hours of this message.
Include a date for your subsequent status update.  Testers may discover new
open items at any time, and I want to plan to get them all fixed well in
advance of shipping 9.6rc1.  Consequently, I will appreciate your efforts
toward speedy resolution.  Thanks.

[1] http://www.postgresql.org/message-id/20160527025039.GA447393@tornado.leadboat.com