Subject: [PORTS] Patches for Irix 6.4
I have worked out how to compile PostgreSQL on Irix 6.4 using the -n32 compiler
mode and version 7.1 of the C compiler. (The n32 compiler use 32 bits
addressing,
but allows access to all the instructions in the MIPS4 instruction set.)
There were several problems:
1) The ld command is not referenced as a macro in all the Makefiles. On
this platform, you have to include -n32 on all the ld commands. Makefiles
were changed as needed.
3) Lots of warnings are generated from the compiler. Since the regression
tests worked OK, I didn't attempt to fix them. If anyone wants the compilation
log, please let me know, and I'll email it to you.
The version of postgresql was 970602. Here is Makefile.custom:
CUSTOM_COPT = -O2 -n32
MK_NO_LORDER = 1
LD = ld -n32
CC += -n32
Subject: [PATCHES] Re: [PORTS] AIX 6.1 fixes...
Here are the patches for the two things that wouldn't make it thru the AIX
compiler. The geo_ops.c change is harmless I believe. The nbtcompare.c patch
fixes me, but I don't know about any other ports. Maybe wait on that one
until Vadim decides what to do about the unsigned vs signed chars varlena
issue.
when btree used in innerscan with run-time key which value
passed by pointer.
Fix: keys ordering stuff moved to _bt_first().
Pointed by Thomas Lockhart.
OK, here are a passel of patches for the geometric data types.
These add a "circle" data type, new operators and functions
for the existing data types, and change the default formats
for some of the existing types to make them consistant with
each other. Current formatting conventions (e.g. compatible
with v6.0 to allow dump/reload) are supported, but the new
conventions should be an improvement and we can eventually
drop the old conventions entirely.
For example, there are two kinds of paths (connected line segments),
open and closed, and the old format was
'(1,2,1,2,3,4)' for a closed path with two points (1,2) and (3,4)
'(0,2,1,2,3,4)' for an open path with two points (1,2) and (3,4)
Pretty arcane, huh? The new format for paths is
'((1,2),(3,4))' for a closed path with two points (1,2) and (3,4)
'[(1,2),(3,4)]' for an open path with two points (1,2) and (3,4)
For polygons, the old convention is
'(0,4,2,0,4,3)' for a triangle with points at (0,0),(4,4), and (2,3)
and the new convention is
'((0,0),(4,4),(2,3))' for a triangle with points at (0,0),(4,4), and (2,3)
Other data types which are also represented as lists of points
(e.g. boxes, line segments, and polygons) have similar representations
(they surround each point with parens).
For v6.1, any format which can be interpreted as the old style format
is decoded as such; we can remove that backwards compatibility but ugly
convention for v7.0. This will allow dump/reloads from v6.0.
These include some updates to the regression test files to change the test
for creating a data type from "circle" to "widget" to keep the test from
trashing the new builtin circle type.
index tuple (logical position within A LEVEL). bti_oid & bti_dummy
taken off from BTItemData.
2. Fix for multi-column indices (nbtsearch.c):
_bt_binsrch() - for searches on internal pages having keysize <
number of attrs we point at the last item < the scankey, not at the
first item = the scankey;
_bt_moveright() - if keysize < number of attrs we compare scankey with
_last_ item on current page to decide should we move right or
not.
Reply-To: hackers@hub.org, Dan McGuirk <mcguirk@indirect.com>
To: hackers@hub.org
Subject: [HACKERS] tmin writeback optimization
I was doing some profiling of the backend, and noticed that during a certain
benchmark I was running somewhere between 30% and 75% of the backend's CPU
time was being spent in calls to TransactionIdDidCommit() from
HeapTupleSatisfiesNow() or HeapTupleSatisfiesItself() to determine that
changed rows' transactions had in fact been committed even though the rows'
tmin values had not yet been set.
When a query looks at a given row, it needs to figure out whether the
transaction that changed the row has been committed and hence it should pay
attention to the row, or whether on the other hand the transaction is still
in progress or has been aborted and hence the row should be ignored. If
a tmin value is set, it is known definitively that the row's transaction
has been committed. However, if tmin is not set, the transaction
referred to in xmin must be looked up in pg_log, and this is what the
backend was spending a lot of time doing during my benchmark.
So, implementing a method suggested by Vadim, I created the following
patch that, the first time a query finds a committed row whose tmin value
is not set, sets it, and marks the buffer where the row is stored as
dirty. (It works for tmax, too.) This doesn't result in the boost in
real time performance I was hoping for, however it does decrease backend
CPU usage by up to two-thirds in certain situations, so it could be
rather beneficial in high-concurrency settings.
Actually required by multi-column indices support.
We still don't use btree for 'A is (not) null', but
now btree keep items with NULL attrs using single rule
for placing/finding items on pages:
NULLs greater NOT_NULLs and NULL = NULL.
+ Bulkload code (nbtsort.c) support for multi-column indices
building and NULLs.
+ Fix for btendscan()->pfree(scanopaque) from Chris Dunlop.
Subject: [HACKERS] linux/alpha patches
These patches lay the groundwork for a Linux/Alpha port. The port doesn't
actually work unless you tweak the linker to put all the pointers in the
first 32 bits of the address space, but it's at least a start. It
implements the test-and-set instruction in Alpha assembly, and also fixes
a lot of pointer-to-integer conversions, which is probably good anyway.
Subject: [HACKERS] abort failed transaction patch
This patch allows you to end a transaction that has failed on an error
using the 'ABORT' statement without generating another error message.
(By default you get an error unless you use 'END' to terminate the
transaction, which has already been aborted anyway.)
