On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 12:50 PM, Steven Schlansker <ste...@likeness.com> wrote:
>
> On Sep 25, 2013, at 6:04 AM, Merlin Moncure <mmonc...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 10:19 PM, François Beausoleil
>> <franc...@teksol.info> wrote:
>>> Hi all!
>>>
>>> I import many, many rows of data into a table, from three or more 
>>> computers, 4 times per hour. I have a primary key, and the query I use to 
>>> import the data is supposed to dedup before inserting, but I still get 
>>> primary key violations.
>>>
>>> The import process is:
>>>
>>> * Load CSV data into temp table
>>> * INSERT INTO dest SELECT DISTINCT (pkey) FROM temp WHERE NOT 
>>> EXISTS(temp.pkey = dest.pkey)
>>>
>>> I assumed (erroneously) that this would guarantee no duplicate data could 
>>> make it into the database. The primary key violations are proving me wrong.
>>
>> Right.  Transaction A and B are interleaved: they both run the same
>> check against the same id at the same time.  Both checks pass because
>> neither transaction is committed.  This problem is not solvable by
>> adjusting the isolation level.
>
> Are you sure that this is the case?  It is my understanding that since 9.1 
> with SSI (https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/SSI) if you set the transaction 
> isolation level to SERIALIZABLE, this problem is solved, as the insert will 
> take a "predicate lock" and the other insert cannot succeed.
>
> We use this to detect / resolve concurrent inserts that violate primary keys 
> and it works great.
>
> However in this case it probably doesn't help the OP because the cost of 
> restarting the entire import is likely too high.

ah, you're right!

merlin


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