Re: [HACKERS] Indirect indexes

Here's a still-WIP patch that's a better candidate for inclusion.  In
this patch, I have created an executor node for indirect index scans.
This node is created whenever an indexscan path is chosen for an
indirect index.  The planner treats indirect indexes just like regular
indexes, except that they are explicitly excluded from index-only scans
and bitmap scans.

Indirect indexes are more costly to scan than regular indexes, because
of the need to scan the primary key index.  However, the fact that they
can be ignored for HOT considerations make them worthwhile in
update-heavy cases.

This patch only implements btree indirect indexes, but it is possible to
implement them with other index types too.  The btree case is probably
not terribly interesting in conjuncttion with Pavan's WARM, but on the
other hand it is expected that GIN indirect to remain useful.  I have
not implemented GIN indirect indexes yet, to keep the patch small; once
we have btree indirect indexes we can implement GIN, which should be
easy.

There are a few broken things yet, such as "REINDEX TABLE pg_class" and
some other operations specifically on pg_class.  This one in particular
breaks the regression tests, but that shouldn't be terribly difficult to
fix.  Other things I know about that need further work:

* The killtuple implementation is bogus: it may delete entries that are
visible to scans other than our own (in particular it may delete entries
that are being concurrently created, I think).

* We still pass PK values in scan->xs_ctup.t_self.  Shouldn't be
difficult to fix, if a bit invasive.

* Only one primary key column is supported.  Should be an easy fix if
the above is fixed.

* Fill in the UNIQUE_CHECK_INSERT_SINGLETON bits, to avoid duplicate
entries in the indirect index

* Figure out what's the deal with validate_index_heapscan

* Figure out if we need to apply ExecQual in IndirectIndexNext

* Verify whether NumOrderByKeys != 0 is necessary.  If so, test it.

* There's a probably bogus assertion in get_index_paths

* Better implementation of RelationGetPrimaryKey?  Maybe save PK in
relcache?


-- 
Álvaro Herrera                https://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services

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