Hackers,

Experience and a read through backend/commands/tablecmds.c's AlterTable() indicate that ALTER TABLE ... DISABLE TRIGGER obtains an exclusive lock on the table (as does any ALTER TABLE).

Blocking other readers from a table when we've, within the body of a transaction performing a bulk update operation where we don't want / need triggers to fire, seems at first glance to be over-kill. I can see how AlterTable()'s complex logic is made less complex through 'get and keep a big lock', since most of its operational modes really do need exclusive access, but is it strictly required for ... DISABLE / REENABLE TRIGGER?

Could, say, RowExclusiveLock hypothetically provide adequate protection, allowing concurrent reads, but blocking out any other writers (for ENABLE / DISABLE TRIGGER) -- such as if driven through a new statement other than ALTER TABLE -- such as "DISABLE TRIGGER foo ON tbar" ?

Thanks!
----
James Robinson
Socialserve.com


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