Hi, On 2019-04-30 00:50:20 -0400, Tom Lane wrote: > Andres Freund <and...@anarazel.de> writes: > > On April 29, 2019 9:37:33 PM PDT, Tom Lane <t...@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote: > >> Seems like putting reindexes of pg_class into a test script that runs > >> in parallel with other DDL wasn't a hot idea. > > > Saw that. Will try to reproduce (and if necessary either run separately or > > revert). But isn't that somewhat broken? They're not run in a transaction, > > so the locking shouldn't be deadlock prone. > > Hm? REINDEX INDEX is deadlock-prone by definition, because it starts > by opening/locking the index and then it has to open/lock the index's > table. Every other operation locks tables before their indexes.
We claim to have solved that: /* * ReindexIndex * Recreate a specific index. */ void ReindexIndex(RangeVar *indexRelation, int options, bool concurrent) /* * Find and lock index, and check permissions on table; use callback to * obtain lock on table first, to avoid deadlock hazard. The lock level * used here must match the index lock obtained in reindex_index(). */ indOid = RangeVarGetRelidExtended(indexRelation, concurrent ? ShareUpdateExclusiveLock : AccessExclusiveLock, 0, RangeVarCallbackForReindexIndex, (void *) &heapOid); and I don't see an obvious hole in the general implementation. Minus the comment that code exists back to 9.4. I suspect the problem isn't REINDEX INDEX in general, it's REINDEX INDEX over catalog tables modified during reindex. The callback acquires a ShareLock lock on the index's table, but *also* during the reindex needs a RowExclusiveLock on pg_class, etc. E.g. in RelationSetNewRelfilenode() on pg_class, and on pg_index in index_build(). Which means there's a lock-upgrade hazard (Share to RowExclusive - well, that's more a side-grade, but still deadlock prone). I can think of ways to fix that (e.g. if reindex is on pg_class or index, use SHARE ROW EXCLUSIVE, rather than SHARE), but we'd probably not want to backpatch that. I'll try to reproduce tomorrow. Greetings, Andres Freund