ALTER TABLE ... DETACH PARTITION ... CONCURRENTLY
authorAlvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
Thu, 25 Mar 2021 21:00:28 +0000 (18:00 -0300)
committerAlvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
Thu, 25 Mar 2021 21:00:28 +0000 (18:00 -0300)
commit71f4c8c6f74ba021e55d35b1128d22fb8c6e1629
treec53d5e70ef2c8ec1723c9fb62fc8174ba6381e29
parent650d623530c884c087c565f1d3b8cd76f8fe2b95
ALTER TABLE ... DETACH PARTITION ... CONCURRENTLY

Allow a partition be detached from its partitioned table without
blocking concurrent queries, by running in two transactions and only
requiring ShareUpdateExclusive in the partitioned table.

Because it runs in two transactions, it cannot be used in a transaction
block.  This is the main reason to use dedicated syntax: so that users
can choose to use the original mode if they need it.  But also, it
doesn't work when a default partition exists (because an exclusive lock
would still need to be obtained on it, in order to change its partition
constraint.)

In case the second transaction is cancelled or a crash occurs, there's
ALTER TABLE .. DETACH PARTITION .. FINALIZE, which executes the final
steps.

The main trick to make this work is the addition of column
pg_inherits.inhdetachpending, initially false; can only be set true in
the first part of this command.  Once that is committed, concurrent
transactions that use a PartitionDirectory will include or ignore
partitions so marked: in optimizer they are ignored if the row is marked
committed for the snapshot; in executor they are always included.  As a
result, and because of the way PartitionDirectory caches partition
descriptors, queries that were planned before the detach will see the
rows in the detached partition and queries that are planned after the
detach, won't.

A CHECK constraint is created that duplicates the partition constraint.
This is probably not strictly necessary, and some users will prefer to
remove it afterwards, but if the partition is re-attached to a
partitioned table, the constraint needn't be rechecked.

Author: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
Reviewed-by: Amit Langote <amitlangote09@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Justin Pryzby <pryzby@telsasoft.com>
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/20200803234854.GA24158@alvherre.pgsql
41 files changed:
doc/src/sgml/catalogs.sgml
doc/src/sgml/ref/alter_table.sgml
src/backend/catalog/heap.c
src/backend/catalog/index.c
src/backend/catalog/partition.c
src/backend/catalog/pg_inherits.c
src/backend/commands/indexcmds.c
src/backend/commands/tablecmds.c
src/backend/commands/trigger.c
src/backend/executor/execPartition.c
src/backend/nodes/copyfuncs.c
src/backend/nodes/equalfuncs.c
src/backend/optimizer/util/plancat.c
src/backend/parser/gram.y
src/backend/partitioning/partbounds.c
src/backend/partitioning/partdesc.c
src/backend/tcop/utility.c
src/backend/utils/adt/ri_triggers.c
src/backend/utils/cache/partcache.c
src/bin/psql/describe.c
src/include/catalog/catversion.h
src/include/catalog/partition.h
src/include/catalog/pg_inherits.h
src/include/nodes/parsenodes.h
src/include/parser/kwlist.h
src/include/partitioning/partdesc.h
src/include/utils/snapmgr.h
src/test/isolation/expected/detach-partition-concurrently-1.out [new file with mode: 0644]
src/test/isolation/expected/detach-partition-concurrently-2.out [new file with mode: 0644]
src/test/isolation/expected/detach-partition-concurrently-3.out [new file with mode: 0644]
src/test/isolation/expected/detach-partition-concurrently-4.out [new file with mode: 0644]
src/test/isolation/isolation_schedule
src/test/isolation/specs/detach-partition-concurrently-1.spec [new file with mode: 0644]
src/test/isolation/specs/detach-partition-concurrently-2.spec [new file with mode: 0644]
src/test/isolation/specs/detach-partition-concurrently-3.spec [new file with mode: 0644]
src/test/isolation/specs/detach-partition-concurrently-4.spec [new file with mode: 0644]
src/test/modules/delay_execution/Makefile
src/test/modules/delay_execution/expected/partition-removal-1.out [new file with mode: 0644]
src/test/modules/delay_execution/specs/partition-removal-1.spec [new file with mode: 0644]
src/test/regress/expected/alter_table.out
src/test/regress/sql/alter_table.sql