Re: reading pg_stat_activity view

On Dec 13, 2007 1:33 PM, Tena Sakai <tsakai@gallo.ucsf.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi everybody,
>
>  As I look at output from pg_stat_activity view,
>  I see often <idle> under query column and on the
>  same row waiting column is always f.  I gather
>  that this is someone sitting at prompt of psql.
>
>  My question: What does it mean when a query column
>  lists a sql statment and waiting column f?  Would
>  this mean something is in a hung state?

Not what that means at all. :)

It means that the query is not waiting on locks from another query to
be released.  Here's an example you can do yourself to see it happen:

T1: # create table test (a int, b text);
T1: # insert into test values (1,'abc');
T1: # insert into test values (2,'def');
T1: # begin;
T1: # select * from test where a=1 for update;
 a |  b
---+-----
 1 | abc
(1 row)
T2: # update test set b='xyz' where a=1;
(T2 enters a wait state waiting on T1 to commit or rollback)

In another psql session, select * from pg_stat_activity where datname='mydb';
16385 | mydb |   13379 |    16384 | myname | update test set b='xyz'
where a=1;                       | t

Make sense?