Re: Bug: wrong relname in RemoveSubscriptionRel() error detail

> On Mar 30, 2026, at 14:16, Nisha Moond <nisha.moond412@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Mar 27, 2026 at 3:22 PM Chao Li <li.evan.chao@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I just noticed a wrong relation name in the error detail emitted by RemoveSubscriptionRel():
>> ```
>> *
>> * Drop subscription relation mapping. These can be for a particular
>> * subscription, or for a particular relation, or both.
>> */
>> void
>> RemoveSubscriptionRel(Oid subid, Oid relid)
>> {
>>        Relation        rel;
>>        TableScanDesc scan;
>>        ScanKeyData skey[2];
>>        HeapTuple       tup;
>>        int                     nkeys = 0;
>>
>>        rel = table_open(SubscriptionRelRelationId, RowExclusiveLock);
>>
>>        if (OidIsValid(subid))
>>        {
>>                ScanKeyInit(&skey[nkeys++],
>>                                        Anum_pg_subscription_rel_srsubid,
>>                                        BTEqualStrategyNumber,
>>                                        F_OIDEQ,
>>                                        ObjectIdGetDatum(subid));
>>        }
>>
>>        if (OidIsValid(relid))
>>        {
>>                ScanKeyInit(&skey[nkeys++],
>>                                        Anum_pg_subscription_rel_srrelid,
>>                                        BTEqualStrategyNumber,
>>                                        F_OIDEQ,
>>                                        ObjectIdGetDatum(relid));
>>        }
>>
>>        /* Do the search and delete what we found. */
>>        scan = table_beginscan_catalog(rel, nkeys, skey);
>>        while (HeapTupleIsValid(tup = heap_getnext(scan, ForwardScanDirection)))
>>        {
>>                Form_pg_subscription_rel subrel;
>>
>>                subrel = (Form_pg_subscription_rel) GETSTRUCT(tup);
>>
>>                if (!OidIsValid(subid) &&
>>                        subrel->srsubstate != SUBREL_STATE_READY &&
>>                        get_rel_relkind(subrel->srrelid) != RELKIND_SEQUENCE)
>>                {
>>                        ereport(ERROR,
>>                                        (errcode(ERRCODE_INVALID_PARAMETER_VALUE),
>>                                         errmsg("could not drop relation mapping for subscription \"%s\"",
>>                                                        get_subscription_name(subrel->srsubid, false)),
>>                                         errdetail("Table synchronization for relation \"%s\" is in progress and is
instate \"%c\".", 
>>                                                           get_rel_name(relid), subrel->srsubstate), // <====== bug
ishere 
>>
>> ```
>>
>> In the error detail, it uses relid to get the relation name. But at that point we are iterating over subrel, and the
functionargument relid can be InvalidOid. So the error detail should use subrel->srrelid instead. 
>>
>> This looks like a first-day bug introducing by ce0fdbf, so I think it’s worth back-patching.
>>
>
> I tried reproducing the said bug on HEAD, but it doesn’t seem to exist
> in the current code.
>
> To hit the mentioned error, the subid has to be invalid -
>   if (!OidIsValid(subid) &&  <==
> And currently, the only path that uses an invalid subid is via
> heap_drop_with_catalog() :
> …
> /*
>   * Remove any associated relation synchronization states.
>   */
>  RemoveSubscriptionRel(InvalidOid, relid);
> …
>
> But here relid is always a valid OID (it's the table being dropped).
> The corresponding pg_class row is deleted after
> RemoveSubscriptionRel(), i.e. via a later call to
> DeleteRelationTuple(relid);
>
> It can only happen with a hypothetical future caller of
> RemoveSubscriptionRel(InvalidOid, InvalidOid). And in that case, using
> "subrel->srrelid" would be correct.
>
> So this doesn’t appear to be a real issue in the current code, and
> doesn’t look like a bug to fix now. IMO, if such a caller is added in
> the future, we can add a guard at that point.
>
> --
> Thanks,
> Nisha

Hi Nisha,

Thanks for your review.

I think one current call site may have been overlooked. In DropSubscription(), we have:
```
    /* Remove any associated relation synchronization states. */
    RemoveSubscriptionRel(subid, InvalidOid);
```

I agree this is an edge-case bug and may be difficult to reproduce in practice. But from the function’s semantics, it
seemsclear to me that the wrong relation OID is used in the error detail, regardless of how easy it is to trigger
today.

Best regards,
--
Chao Li (Evan)
HighGo Software Co., Ltd.
https://www.highgo.com/