Re: Test slots invalidations in 035_standby_logical_decoding.pl only if dead rows are removed

Hi,

On Mon, Jan 22, 2024 at 03:54:44PM +0900, Michael Paquier wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 19, 2024 at 09:03:01AM +0000, Bertrand Drouvot wrote:
> > On Fri, Jan 19, 2024 at 09:00:01AM +0300, Alexander Lakhin wrote:
> +# Launch $sql and wait for a new snapshot that has a newer horizon before
> +# doing the vacuum with $vac_option on $to_vac.
> +sub wait_until_vacuum_can_remove
> 
> This had better document what the arguments of this routine are,
> because that's really unclear.  $to_vac is the relation that will be
> vacuumed, for one.

Agree, done that way in v8 attached.

> Also, wouldn't it be better to document in the test why
> txid_current_snapshot() is chosen?  Contrary to txid_current(), it
> does not generate a Transaction/COMMIT to make the test more
> predictible, something you have mentioned upthread, and implied in the
> test.

Good point, added more comments in v8 (but not mentioning txid_current() as 
after giving more thought about it then I think it was not the right approach in
any case).

> 
> -  INSERT INTO flush_wal DEFAULT VALUES; -- see create table flush_wal
> 
> This removes two INSERTs on flush_wal and refactors the code to do the
> INSERT in wait_until_vacuum_can_remove(), using a SQL comment to
> document a reference about the reason why an INSERT is used.  Couldn't
> you just use a normal comment here?

Agree, done in v8.

> >> I've re-tested the v6 patch today and confirmed that it makes the test
> >> more stable. I ran (with bgwriter_delay = 10000 in temp.config) 20 tests in
> >> parallel and got failures ('inactiveslot slot invalidation is logged with
> >> vacuum on pg_authid') on iterations 2, 6, 6 with no patch applied.
> >> (With unlimited CPU, when average test duration is around 70 seconds.)
> >> 
> >> But with v6 applied, 60 iterations succeeded.
> > 
> > Nice! Thanks for the testing!
> 
> I need to review what you have more thoroughly, but is it OK to assume
> that both of you are happy with the latest version of the patch in
> terms of stability gained?  That's still not the full picture, still a
> good step towards that.

Yeah, I can clearly see how this patch helps from a theoritical perspective but
rely on Alexander's testing to see how it actually stabilizes the test.

Regards,

-- 
Bertrand Drouvot
PostgreSQL Contributors Team
RDS Open Source Databases
Amazon Web Services: https://aws.amazon.com