On Sun, Oct 26, 2025 at 02:25:48PM +1300, David Rowley wrote:
> Thanks. I've just had a look at it. A few comments and questions.

Thanks.

> 1) The subtraction here looks back to front:
> 
> + xid_age = TransactionIdIsNormal(relfrozenxid) ? relfrozenxid - recentXid : 
> 0;
> + mxid_age = MultiXactIdIsValid(relminmxid) ? relminmxid - recentMulti : 0;

D'oh.

> 2) Would it be better to move all the code that sets the xid_score and
> mxid_score to under an "if (force_vacuum)"? Those two variables could
> be declared in there too.

Seems reasonable.

> 3) Could the following be refactored a bit so we only check the "relid
> != StatisticRelationId" condition once?

Yes.  We can update the vacuum part to follow the same pattern, too.

> 4) Should these be TransactionIds?
> 
> + uint32 xid_age;
> + uint32 mxid_age;

Probably.

> 5) Instead of:
> 
> + double score = 0.0;
> 
> Is it better to zero the score inside relation_needs_vacanalyze() so
> it works the same as the other output parameters?

My only concern about this is that some compilers might complain about
potentially-uninitialized uses.  But we can still zero it in the function
regardless.

-- 
nathan
>From 8fc0829a2be30ea29d263d45732c6ef1bd2c6ef0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Nathan Bossart <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2025 12:28:37 -0500
Subject: [PATCH v5 1/1] autovacuum scheduling improvements

---
 src/backend/postmaster/autovacuum.c | 171 ++++++++++++++++++++++++----
 src/tools/pgindent/typedefs.list    |   1 +
 2 files changed, 153 insertions(+), 19 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/postmaster/autovacuum.c 
b/src/backend/postmaster/autovacuum.c
index 5084af7dfb6..97ace126821 100644
--- a/src/backend/postmaster/autovacuum.c
+++ b/src/backend/postmaster/autovacuum.c
@@ -97,6 +97,7 @@
 #include "storage/procsignal.h"
 #include "storage/smgr.h"
 #include "tcop/tcopprot.h"
+#include "utils/float.h"
 #include "utils/fmgroids.h"
 #include "utils/fmgrprotos.h"
 #include "utils/guc_hooks.h"
@@ -310,6 +311,12 @@ static AutoVacuumShmemStruct *AutoVacuumShmem;
 static dlist_head DatabaseList = DLIST_STATIC_INIT(DatabaseList);
 static MemoryContext DatabaseListCxt = NULL;
 
+typedef struct
+{
+       Oid                     oid;
+       double          score;
+} TableToProcess;
+
 /*
  * Dummy pointer to persuade Valgrind that we've not leaked the array of
  * avl_dbase structs.  Make it global to ensure the compiler doesn't
@@ -351,7 +358,8 @@ static void relation_needs_vacanalyze(Oid relid, 
AutoVacOpts *relopts,
                                                                          
Form_pg_class classForm,
                                                                          
PgStat_StatTabEntry *tabentry,
                                                                          int 
effective_multixact_freeze_max_age,
-                                                                         bool 
*dovacuum, bool *doanalyze, bool *wraparound);
+                                                                         bool 
*dovacuum, bool *doanalyze, bool *wraparound,
+                                                                         
double *score);
 
 static void autovacuum_do_vac_analyze(autovac_table *tab,
                                                                          
BufferAccessStrategy bstrategy);
@@ -1889,6 +1897,15 @@ get_database_list(void)
        return dblist;
 }
 
+static int
+TableToProcessComparator(const ListCell *a, const ListCell *b)
+{
+       TableToProcess *t1 = (TableToProcess *) lfirst(a);
+       TableToProcess *t2 = (TableToProcess *) lfirst(b);
+
+       return float8_cmp_internal(t2->score, t1->score);
+}
+
 /*
  * Process a database table-by-table
  *
@@ -1902,7 +1919,7 @@ do_autovacuum(void)
        HeapTuple       tuple;
        TableScanDesc relScan;
        Form_pg_database dbForm;
-       List       *table_oids = NIL;
+       List       *tables_to_process = NIL;
        List       *orphan_oids = NIL;
        HASHCTL         ctl;
        HTAB       *table_toast_map;
@@ -2014,6 +2031,7 @@ do_autovacuum(void)
                bool            dovacuum;
                bool            doanalyze;
                bool            wraparound;
+               double          score = 0.0;
 
                if (classForm->relkind != RELKIND_RELATION &&
                        classForm->relkind != RELKIND_MATVIEW)
@@ -2054,11 +2072,19 @@ do_autovacuum(void)
                /* Check if it needs vacuum or analyze */
                relation_needs_vacanalyze(relid, relopts, classForm, tabentry,
                                                                  
effective_multixact_freeze_max_age,
-                                                                 &dovacuum, 
&doanalyze, &wraparound);
+                                                                 &dovacuum, 
&doanalyze, &wraparound,
+                                                                 &score);
 
-               /* Relations that need work are added to table_oids */
+               /* Relations that need work are added to tables_to_process */
                if (dovacuum || doanalyze)
-                       table_oids = lappend_oid(table_oids, relid);
+               {
+                       TableToProcess *table = palloc(sizeof(TableToProcess));
+
+                       table->oid = relid;
+                       table->score = score;
+
+                       tables_to_process = lappend(tables_to_process, table);
+               }
 
                /*
                 * Remember TOAST associations for the second pass.  Note: we 
must do
@@ -2114,6 +2140,7 @@ do_autovacuum(void)
                bool            dovacuum;
                bool            doanalyze;
                bool            wraparound;
+               double          score = 0.0;
 
                /*
                 * We cannot safely process other backends' temp tables, so 
skip 'em.
@@ -2146,11 +2173,19 @@ do_autovacuum(void)
 
                relation_needs_vacanalyze(relid, relopts, classForm, tabentry,
                                                                  
effective_multixact_freeze_max_age,
-                                                                 &dovacuum, 
&doanalyze, &wraparound);
+                                                                 &dovacuum, 
&doanalyze, &wraparound,
+                                                                 &score);
 
                /* ignore analyze for toast tables */
                if (dovacuum)
-                       table_oids = lappend_oid(table_oids, relid);
+               {
+                       TableToProcess *table = palloc(sizeof(TableToProcess));
+
+                       table->oid = relid;
+                       table->score = score;
+
+                       tables_to_process = lappend(tables_to_process, table);
+               }
 
                /* Release stuff to avoid leakage */
                if (free_relopts)
@@ -2274,6 +2309,8 @@ do_autovacuum(void)
                MemoryContextSwitchTo(AutovacMemCxt);
        }
 
+       list_sort(tables_to_process, TableToProcessComparator);
+
        /*
         * Optionally, create a buffer access strategy object for VACUUM to use.
         * We use the same BufferAccessStrategy object for all tables VACUUMed 
by
@@ -2302,9 +2339,9 @@ do_autovacuum(void)
        /*
         * Perform operations on collected tables.
         */
-       foreach(cell, table_oids)
+       foreach_ptr(TableToProcess, table, tables_to_process)
        {
-               Oid                     relid = lfirst_oid(cell);
+               Oid                     relid = table->oid;
                HeapTuple       classTup;
                autovac_table *tab;
                bool            isshared;
@@ -2535,7 +2572,7 @@ deleted:
                pg_atomic_test_set_flag(&MyWorkerInfo->wi_dobalance);
        }
 
-       list_free(table_oids);
+       list_free_deep(tables_to_process);
 
        /*
         * Perform additional work items, as requested by backends.
@@ -2934,6 +2971,7 @@ recheck_relation_needs_vacanalyze(Oid relid,
                                                                  bool 
*wraparound)
 {
        PgStat_StatTabEntry *tabentry;
+       double          score;
 
        /* fetch the pgstat table entry */
        tabentry = pgstat_fetch_stat_tabentry_ext(classForm->relisshared,
@@ -2941,7 +2979,8 @@ recheck_relation_needs_vacanalyze(Oid relid,
 
        relation_needs_vacanalyze(relid, avopts, classForm, tabentry,
                                                          
effective_multixact_freeze_max_age,
-                                                         dovacuum, doanalyze, 
wraparound);
+                                                         dovacuum, doanalyze, 
wraparound,
+                                                         &score);
 
        /* Release tabentry to avoid leakage */
        if (tabentry)
@@ -2990,6 +3029,32 @@ recheck_relation_needs_vacanalyze(Oid relid,
  * autovacuum_vacuum_threshold GUC variable.  Similarly, a vac_scale_factor
  * value < 0 is substituted with the value of
  * autovacuum_vacuum_scale_factor GUC variable.  Ditto for analyze.
+ *
+ * This function also returns a score that can be used to sort the list of
+ * tables to process.  The idea is to have autovacuum prioritize tables that
+ * are furthest beyond their thresholds (e.g., a table nearing transaction ID
+ * wraparound should be vacuumed first).  This prioritization scheme is
+ * certainly far from perfect; there are simply too many possibilities for any
+ * scoring technique to work across all workloads, and the situation might
+ * change significantly between the time we calculate the score and the time
+ * that autovacuum gets to processing it.  However, we have attempted to
+ * develop something that is expected to work for a large portion of workloads
+ * with reasonable parameter settings.
+ *
+ * The score is calculated as the maximum of the ratios of each of the table's
+ * relevant values to its threshold.  For example, if the number of inserted
+ * tuples is 100, and the insert threshold for the table is 80, the insert
+ * score is 1.25.  If all other scores are below that value, the returned score
+ * will be 1.25.  The other criteria considered for the score are the table
+ * ages (both relfrozenxid and relminmxid) compared to the corresponding
+ * freeze-max-age setting, the number of updated/deleted tuples compared to the
+ * vacuum threshold, and the number of inserted/updated/deleted tuples compared
+ * to the analyze threshold.
+ *
+ * One exception to the previous paragraph is for tables nearing wraparound,
+ * i.e., those that have surpassed the effective failsafe ages.  In that case,
+ * the relfrozen/relminmxid-based score is scaled aggressively so that the
+ * table has a decent chance of sorting to the top of the list.
  */
 static void
 relation_needs_vacanalyze(Oid relid,
@@ -3000,7 +3065,8 @@ relation_needs_vacanalyze(Oid relid,
  /* output params below */
                                                  bool *dovacuum,
                                                  bool *doanalyze,
-                                                 bool *wraparound)
+                                                 bool *wraparound,
+                                                 double *score)
 {
        bool            force_vacuum;
        bool            av_enabled;
@@ -3029,11 +3095,15 @@ relation_needs_vacanalyze(Oid relid,
        int                     multixact_freeze_max_age;
        TransactionId xidForceLimit;
        TransactionId relfrozenxid;
+       TransactionId relminmxid;
        MultiXactId multiForceLimit;
 
        Assert(classForm != NULL);
        Assert(OidIsValid(relid));
 
+       /* ensure score is initialized to zero */
+       *score = 0.0;
+
        /*
         * Determine vacuum/analyze equation parameters.  We have two possible
         * sources: the passed reloptions (which could be a main table or a 
toast
@@ -3081,17 +3151,17 @@ relation_needs_vacanalyze(Oid relid,
 
        av_enabled = (relopts ? relopts->enabled : true);
 
+       relfrozenxid = classForm->relfrozenxid;
+       relminmxid = classForm->relminmxid;
+
        /* Force vacuum if table is at risk of wraparound */
        xidForceLimit = recentXid - freeze_max_age;
        if (xidForceLimit < FirstNormalTransactionId)
                xidForceLimit -= FirstNormalTransactionId;
-       relfrozenxid = classForm->relfrozenxid;
        force_vacuum = (TransactionIdIsNormal(relfrozenxid) &&
                                        TransactionIdPrecedes(relfrozenxid, 
xidForceLimit));
        if (!force_vacuum)
        {
-               MultiXactId relminmxid = classForm->relminmxid;
-
                multiForceLimit = recentMulti - multixact_freeze_max_age;
                if (multiForceLimit < FirstMultiXactId)
                        multiForceLimit -= FirstMultiXactId;
@@ -3100,6 +3170,44 @@ relation_needs_vacanalyze(Oid relid,
        }
        *wraparound = force_vacuum;
 
+       /* Update the score. */
+       if (force_vacuum)
+       {
+               Oid                     xid_age;
+               Oid                     mxid_age;
+               double          xid_score;
+               double          mxid_score;
+               int                     effective_xid_failsafe_age;
+               int                     effective_mxid_failsafe_age;
+
+               /*
+                * To calculate the (M)XID age portion of the score, divide the 
age by
+                * its respective *_freeze_max_age parameter.
+                */
+               xid_age = TransactionIdIsNormal(relfrozenxid) ? recentXid - 
relfrozenxid : 0;
+               mxid_age = MultiXactIdIsValid(relminmxid) ? recentMulti - 
relminmxid : 0;
+
+               xid_score = (double) xid_age / freeze_max_age;
+               mxid_score = (double) mxid_age / multixact_freeze_max_age;
+
+               /*
+                * To ensure tables are given increased priority once they begin
+                * approaching wraparound, we scale the score aggressively if 
the ages
+                * surpass vacuum_failsafe_age or vacuum_multixact_failsafe_age.
+                */
+               effective_xid_failsafe_age = Max(vacuum_failsafe_age,
+                                                                               
 autovacuum_freeze_max_age * 1.05);
+               effective_mxid_failsafe_age = Max(vacuum_multixact_failsafe_age,
+                                                                               
  autovacuum_multixact_freeze_max_age * 1.05);
+
+               if (xid_age >= effective_xid_failsafe_age)
+                       xid_score = pow(xid_score, Max(1.0, (double) xid_age / 
100000000));
+               if (mxid_age >= effective_mxid_failsafe_age)
+                       mxid_score = pow(mxid_score, Max(1.0, (double) mxid_age 
/ 100000000));
+
+               *score = Max(xid_score, mxid_score);
+       }
+
        /* User disabled it in pg_class.reloptions?  (But ignore if at risk) */
        if (!av_enabled && !force_vacuum)
        {
@@ -3169,10 +3277,35 @@ relation_needs_vacanalyze(Oid relid,
                                 NameStr(classForm->relname),
                                 vactuples, vacthresh, anltuples, anlthresh);
 
-               /* Determine if this table needs vacuum or analyze. */
-               *dovacuum = force_vacuum || (vactuples > vacthresh) ||
-                       (vac_ins_base_thresh >= 0 && instuples > vacinsthresh);
-               *doanalyze = (anltuples > anlthresh);
+               /*
+                * Determine if this table needs vacuum, and update the score 
if it
+                * does.
+                */
+               if (force_vacuum ||
+                       vactuples > vacthresh ||
+                       (vac_ins_base_thresh >= 0 && instuples > vacinsthresh))
+               {
+                       *dovacuum = true;
+                       *score = Max(*score, (double) vactuples / 
Max(vacthresh, 1));
+                       if (vac_ins_base_thresh >= 0)
+                               *score = Max(*score, (double) instuples / 
Max(vacinsthresh, 1));
+               }
+               else
+                       *dovacuum = false;
+
+               /*
+                * Determine if this table needs analyze, and update the score 
if it
+                * does.  Note that we don't analyze TOAST tables and 
pg_statistic.
+                */
+               if (anltuples > anlthresh &&
+                       relid != StatisticRelationId &&
+                       classForm->relkind != RELKIND_TOASTVALUE)
+               {
+                       *doanalyze = true;
+                       *score = Max(*score, (double) anltuples / 
Max(anlthresh, 1));
+               }
+               else
+                       *doanalyze = false;
        }
        else
        {
diff --git a/src/tools/pgindent/typedefs.list b/src/tools/pgindent/typedefs.list
index bb4e1b37005..6606e6808d3 100644
--- a/src/tools/pgindent/typedefs.list
+++ b/src/tools/pgindent/typedefs.list
@@ -3007,6 +3007,7 @@ TableScanDesc
 TableScanDescData
 TableSpaceCacheEntry
 TableSpaceOpts
+TableToProcess
 TablespaceList
 TablespaceListCell
 TapeBlockTrailer
-- 
2.39.5 (Apple Git-154)

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