Re: vacuum as flags in PGPROC

Tom Lane wrote:
> Heikki Linnakangas <heikki@enterprisedb.com> writes:
>> Alvaro Herrera wrote:
>>> I did it that way (i.e. added locking) and then realized that it
>>> shouldn't really be a problem, because the only one who can be setting
>>> vacuum flags is the process itself.  Other processes can only read the
>>> flags.
>
>> It would still be a problem if there was any other fields that were
>> updated by other processes, adjacent to the vacuum flags. I don't think
>> that's the case, however.
>
> Well, that may not be the case today, but it still seems like an
> assumption that will come back to bite us someday.  And can you imagine
> trying to debug a misbehavior like that?  It's really not worth the risk,
> given how seldom these flags will be changed.

Oh, I totally agree. I wasn't trying to argue to the contrary.

--
  Heikki Linnakangas
  EnterpriseDB   http://www.enterprisedb.com