Re: MERGE regress test

On 2022-Nov-16, Alvaro Herrera wrote:

> Hmm, good find.  As I recall, I was opposed to the idea of throwing an
> error if the WHEN expression writes to the database, and the previous
> implementation had some hole, so I just ripped it out after discussing
> it; but I evidently failed to notice this test case about it.

Ah, I found out what happened, and my memory as usual is betraying me.
This was changed before I was involved with the patch at all: Pavan
changed it between his v18[1] and v19[2]:

        if (action->whenqual)
        {
-           int64 startWAL = GetXactWALBytes();
-           bool    qual = ExecQual(action->whenqual, econtext);
-
-           /*
-            * SQL Standard says that WHEN AND conditions must not
-            * write to the database, so check we haven't written
-            * any WAL during the test. Very sensible that is, since
-            * we can end up evaluating some tests multiple times if
-            * we have concurrent activity and complex WHEN clauses.
-            *
-            * XXX If we had some clear form of functional labelling
-            * we could use that, if we trusted it.
-            */
-           if (startWAL < GetXactWALBytes())
-               ereport(ERROR,
-                       (errcode(ERRCODE_FEATURE_NOT_SUPPORTED),
-                        errmsg("cannot write to database within WHEN AND condition")));

This is what Peter Geoghegan had to say about it at the time:

> This needs to go. Apart from the fact that GetXactWALBytes() is buggy
> (it returns int64 for the unsigned type XLogRecPtr), the whole idea
> just seems unnecessary. I don't see why this is any different to using
> a volatile function in a regular UPDATE.

Pavan just forgot to remove the test.  I'll do so now.

[1] https://postgr.es/m/CABOikdPFCcgp7=zoN4M=y0TefW4Q9dPAU+Oy5jN5A+hWYdnvNg@mail.gmail.com
[2] https://postgr.es/m/CABOikdOUoaXt1H885TC_cA1LoErEejqdVDZqG62rQkiZPPyg0Q@mail.gmail.com

-- 
Álvaro Herrera        Breisgau, Deutschland  —  https://www.EnterpriseDB.com/
"No tengo por qué estar de acuerdo con lo que pienso"
                             (Carlos Caszeli)