socket calls in signal handler (WAS: APC + socket restrictions un der Win32?)

Hi all,

Was just discussing the issues related to the above off list with Magnus:
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers-win32/2004-03/msg00041.php

Whilst we can think of a number of work-arounds (the simplest being a
suggestion by Magnus: set a flag, like APCcalled, to false before the
select() call, and repeat the select() if APCcalled == true on return from
select), we were wondering if having socket calls inside signal handlers was
a good idea in any case?

The specific (and possibly only? are their others?) issue is the call to
pgstat_beterm from reaper/CleanupProc, invoked by a SIGCHLD. Can this call
be deferred to the main loop (ie. ServerLoop) and is there any merit in
doing so? 

[Seems like pgstat_fetch_stat_numbackends could get seriously out of date,
in pathological scenarios... other gotchas?]

Cheers,
Claudio

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