If I run a test script enough time, it eventually
freezes in this deadlock situation:
The client sends a command to a backend and waits
for an answer. It will wait forever because the
backend
is not aware of the arrival of the request and waits
for a next command.
What happens in the loop is:
SIInsertDataEntry: table is 70% full,
signaling postmaster
In reaction, the postmaster sends to its children:
SignalChildren: sending signal 31 to process <pid>
Most of the time, it works. But at an unpredictable
iteration, it freezes.
This problem appeared first in a replication
machinery, so I reduced the number of components
involved, to get a simpler test case:
A pgtcl script, running a loop with:
create table from another-table
copy table to file
drop table
The 'create table' regularly fires the '70% full'
event, and at some point, the 'copy' never gets
answered.
I attached these files:
- test.tcl: the script to run.
Change these values to meet your context:
set srctable pgr_qryengine_log
set dbname euronetUsers
The source table can be anything empty.
In my case, it's:
CREATE TABLE public.pgr_qryengine_log
(
pgr_sid int4 NOT NULL,
tablename varchar(50),
pgr_gfid int8 NOT NULL,
pgr_grid int8 NOT NULL,
pgr_optype varchar(2),
pgr_when timestamp,
pgr_username varchar(30),
qry_result text
) WITH OIDS;
- postmaster-ok.log
The traces of a successful iteration.
- postmaster-ko.log
The traces of the forever waiting iteration.
EOF is received on a ctrl/c on the client side.
Comparison of the traces shows that the signals
are processed, but the backend doesn't start a
StartTransactionCommand for the expected 'copy'.
I don't know the exact conditions for the freeze to
arise. I just noticed that chances are higher if
there is a lot of postgres.exe processes alive.
I could run 10000 runs without any extra backends.
So I opened a pgAdmin III session to have many
connexions (on multiple db, with different accounts).
With 7 to 10 processes, I reached the freeze at
3392, 2027, 6729, 272, 1871 runs.
I tried to strace the postmaster, but never managed
to have the problem. I guess strace slow down the
system too much.
I just have a strace of a correct iteration.
Done on:
- postgres 7.3.5, W2000 SP2, cygwin 1.5.5-1
- postgres 7.3.5, NT SP6, cygwin 1.5.7-1
I can't tell if the source of the problem is in
cygwin or in postgres, so I post in the two lists.
Would be helpful if anybody can reproduce the
problem, or provide advices to progress on the
debugging work.
Patrick
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