Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-09 Thread Robert Haas
On Tue, Jun 9, 2015 at 3:04 AM, David Gould  wrote:
> On Mon, 8 Jun 2015 13:53:42 -0300
> Alvaro Herrera  wrote:
>
>> * people with the wrong oldestMulti setting in pg_control (which would
>> be due to a buggy pg_upgrade being used long ago) will be unable to
>> start if they upgrade to 9.3.7 or 9.3.8.  A solution for them would be
>> to downgrade to 9.3.6.  We had reports of this problem starting just a
>> couple of days after we released 9.4.2, I think.
>
> Does this mean that for people with wrong oldestMulti settings in pg_control
> due to a buggy pg_upgrade being used long ago can fix this by updating to
> 9.3.9 when it is released? Asking for a friend...

If the value is buggy because it is 1 when it should have some larger
value, yes, this should fix it.

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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-09 Thread David Gould
On Mon, 8 Jun 2015 13:53:42 -0300
Alvaro Herrera  wrote:

> * people with the wrong oldestMulti setting in pg_control (which would
> be due to a buggy pg_upgrade being used long ago) will be unable to
> start if they upgrade to 9.3.7 or 9.3.8.  A solution for them would be
> to downgrade to 9.3.6.  We had reports of this problem starting just a
> couple of days after we released 9.4.2, I think.

Does this mean that for people with wrong oldestMulti settings in pg_control
due to a buggy pg_upgrade being used long ago can fix this by updating to
9.3.9 when it is released? Asking for a friend...

-dg

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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Alvaro Herrera
Josh Berkus wrote:
> On 06/08/2015 12:48 PM, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> > Well, reputation-wise we're already losing every time somebody's server
> > crashes on 9.4.2 and finds it won't start, where it did start fine with
> > 9.4.1.  Maybe they simply wanted to change shared_buffers and the server
> > won't start anymore.  Some people even update binaries with the server
> > running; if they don't restart immediately, it could be several days
> > before it fails to start.  It's pretty scary.
> 
> I'm confused by this discussion.  9.4.3 is released.

The bug was not fixed by 9.4.3.  It was fixed by this commit:

Author: Robert Haas 
Branch: master [068cfadf9] 2015-06-05 09:31:57 -0400
Branch: REL9_4_STABLE [b6a3444fa] 2015-06-05 09:33:52 -0400
Branch: REL9_3_STABLE [2a9b01928] 2015-06-05 09:34:15 -0400

Cope with possible failure of the oldest MultiXact to exist.


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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Josh Berkus
On 06/08/2015 12:48 PM, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> Well, reputation-wise we're already losing every time somebody's server
> crashes on 9.4.2 and finds it won't start, where it did start fine with
> 9.4.1.  Maybe they simply wanted to change shared_buffers and the server
> won't start anymore.  Some people even update binaries with the server
> running; if they don't restart immediately, it could be several days
> before it fails to start.  It's pretty scary.

I'm confused by this discussion.  9.4.3 is released.

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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Joshua D. Drake


On 06/08/2015 12:48 PM, Alvaro Herrera wrote:


Well, reputation-wise we're already losing every time somebody's server
crashes on 9.4.2 and finds it won't start, where it did start fine with
9.4.1.  Maybe they simply wanted to change shared_buffers and the server
won't start anymore.  Some people even update binaries with the server
running; if they don't restart immediately, it could be several days
before it fails to start.  It's pretty scary.


Yeah no doubt there.

JD


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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Alvaro Herrera
Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> 
> On 06/08/2015 12:31 PM, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> >
> >Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> >
> >>If we release on Friday that is the 12th, PgCon is starts the 16th and there
> >>is a weekend in between. If there is an unknown regression or new bug that
> >>is severe, are we going to have the resources to resolve it?
> >
> >ISTM if that happens, we're no worse off than currently.
> 
> Technically sure, reputation?

Well, reputation-wise we're already losing every time somebody's server
crashes on 9.4.2 and finds it won't start, where it did start fine with
9.4.1.  Maybe they simply wanted to change shared_buffers and the server
won't start anymore.  Some people even update binaries with the server
running; if they don't restart immediately, it could be several days
before it fails to start.  It's pretty scary.

> If we really want to do this, let's do it. I am not trying to throw a wrench
> into things. I just really don't want to have to go back, yet again.

Sure, me neither.

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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Joshua D. Drake


On 06/08/2015 12:31 PM, Alvaro Herrera wrote:


Joshua D. Drake wrote:


If we release on Friday that is the 12th, PgCon is starts the 16th and there
is a weekend in between. If there is an unknown regression or new bug that
is severe, are we going to have the resources to resolve it?


ISTM if that happens, we're no worse off than currently.


Technically sure, reputation?

If we really want to do this, let's do it. I am not trying to throw a 
wrench into things. I just really don't want to have to go back, yet again.


Sincerely,

JD



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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Alvaro Herrera
Joshua D. Drake wrote:

> If we release on Friday that is the 12th, PgCon is starts the 16th and there
> is a weekend in between. If there is an unknown regression or new bug that
> is severe, are we going to have the resources to resolve it?

ISTM if that happens, we're no worse off than currently.

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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Joshua D. Drake


On 06/08/2015 12:21 PM, Tom Lane wrote:

Andres Freund  writes:

On 2015-06-08 14:18:22 -0400, Tom Lane wrote:

As I saw it, on Friday it was not clear whether we would be able to do a
release this week.  Now it's Monday, and we still have a rather long list
of issues



Well, these issues aren't regressions, they're "just" general problems
we need to fix. And some of them are going to require somewhat invasive
changes. Both you and Robert have argued that the regressions should be
fixed first. And by now you've convinced me.



, and apparently Andres isn't all that happy even with the fixes
that have gone in, because he still wants more time for testing.



I'm now satisfied that the current HEAD is better than what was released
last time round.


If there's general agreement that there are no regressions from
9.4.anything, then perhaps we should put out a release this week.
Wrap today seems out of the question but we could still do it tomorrow
for Friday release.


If we release on Friday that is the 12th, PgCon is starts the 16th and 
there is a weekend in between. If there is an unknown regression or new 
bug that is severe, are we going to have the resources to resolve it?


Sincerely,

JD

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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Tom Lane
Andres Freund  writes:
> On 2015-06-08 14:18:22 -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
>> As I saw it, on Friday it was not clear whether we would be able to do a
>> release this week.  Now it's Monday, and we still have a rather long list
>> of issues

> Well, these issues aren't regressions, they're "just" general problems
> we need to fix. And some of them are going to require somewhat invasive
> changes. Both you and Robert have argued that the regressions should be
> fixed first. And by now you've convinced me.

>> , and apparently Andres isn't all that happy even with the fixes
>> that have gone in, because he still wants more time for testing.

> I'm now satisfied that the current HEAD is better than what was released
> last time round.

If there's general agreement that there are no regressions from
9.4.anything, then perhaps we should put out a release this week.
Wrap today seems out of the question but we could still do it tomorrow
for Friday release.

Given the lack of notice, I doubt that all the packagers would be on board
promptly; but as long as it's not a security release there's no urgent
reason that they all have to be ready at the same time.

regards, tom lane


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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Robert Haas
On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 2:18 PM, Tom Lane  wrote:
> As I saw it, on Friday it was not clear whether we would be able to do a
> release this week.  Now it's Monday, and we still have a rather long list
> of issues, and apparently Andres isn't all that happy even with the fixes
> that have gone in, because he still wants more time for testing.

My reading is that Andres is convinced that we've fixed the
regressions in 9.4.2.

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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Andres Freund
On 2015-06-08 14:18:22 -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> As I saw it, on Friday it was not clear whether we would be able to do a
> release this week.  Now it's Monday, and we still have a rather long list
> of issues

Well, these issues aren't regressions, they're "just" general problems
we need to fix. And some of them are going to require somewhat invasive
changes. Both you and Robert have argued that the regressions should be
fixed first. And by now you've convinced me.

>, and apparently Andres isn't all that happy even with the fixes
> that have gone in, because he still wants more time for testing.

I'm now satisfied that the current HEAD is better than what was released
last time round.

Greetings,

Andres Freund


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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Tom Lane
Robert Haas  writes:
> It's not exactly going into a black hole, but there was some
> communication between Tom and Andres on Friday that left Andres with
> the impression that if he spent the weekend testing the new code for
> problems and things went well, we'd be able to get a release this
> week.  So he spent his weekend on that, rather than, saying, doing
> something fun, and now Tom wants to wait two weeks.  I'm not accusing
> anybody of anything, but if Andres felt like beating his head against
> a nearby wall at this point, I'd sympathize.

As I saw it, on Friday it was not clear whether we would be able to do a
release this week.  Now it's Monday, and we still have a rather long list
of issues, and apparently Andres isn't all that happy even with the fixes
that have gone in, because he still wants more time for testing.

Are we really benefiting anyone if we force out a rushed release right
now?  What are the odds that it will make things worse?

> Obviously, we need to do what is best for the project overall, not
> what is best for any individual developer's cranial integrity.  But
> the decision-making process here is not entirely clear, and it's not
> entirely obvious that we're making the right ones.

AFAICT, you've been in on every single email thread discussing schedule
over the past couple of weeks, and so has Andres.  If you think it's
unclear, it's not because somebody is hiding something from you, it's
because it *is* unclear what we ought to do.

regards, tom lane


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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Andres Freund
On 2015-06-08 13:16:00 -0400, Robert Haas wrote:
> It's not exactly going into a black hole, but there was some
> communication between Tom and Andres on Friday that left Andres with
> the impression that if he spent the weekend testing the new code for
> problems and things went well, we'd be able to get a release this
> week.

More precisely I felt rather unsure whether we'd release on Monday,
Tuesday, or not at all. And I'd rather have a tested release out there
than an untested one.

Andres


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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Alvaro Herrera
Bruce Momjian wrote:
> On Mon, Jun  8, 2015 at 02:01:52PM -0300, Alvaro Herrera wrote:

> > > OK, are these fixed in 9.4.2 or would the same failure happen in 9.4.3?
> > 
> > The fixes are not yet in any released branch, hence the rush to get
> > these out.
> 
> OK, now I understand.  :-O  We have known failures that are not patched,
> hence the desire for a release.  

Part of the problem is that they are regressions: these systems did not
have any trouble with 9.4.1/9.3.6 (other than being at risk of members
overrun, of course.)

> I am a little concerned we are getting into a case where community
> members dedicated to this issue are asking for a release, and it is
> going into the core black hole, meaning there is no visibility on what
> actions core is taking to make a decision.

At 2ndQuadrant, and I imagine EDB is in the same position, we have
enough packaging stuff going on that we can ship patched releases to
customers in case of trouble.  I worry about users not having that
privilege.

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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Robert Haas
On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 1:08 PM, Bruce Momjian  wrote:
> OK, now I understand.  :-O  We have known failures that are not patched,
> hence the desire for a release.
>
> I am a little concerned we are getting into a case where community
> members dedicated to this issue are asking for a release, and it is
> going into the core black hole, meaning there is no visibility on what
> actions core is taking to make a decision.  (This is not a criticism,
> but rather an observation of how it looks from a non-core-member
> perspective.)

It's not exactly going into a black hole, but there was some
communication between Tom and Andres on Friday that left Andres with
the impression that if he spent the weekend testing the new code for
problems and things went well, we'd be able to get a release this
week.  So he spent his weekend on that, rather than, saying, doing
something fun, and now Tom wants to wait two weeks.  I'm not accusing
anybody of anything, but if Andres felt like beating his head against
a nearby wall at this point, I'd sympathize.

Obviously, we need to do what is best for the project overall, not
what is best for any individual developer's cranial integrity.  But
the decision-making process here is not entirely clear, and it's not
entirely obvious that we're making the right ones.

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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Bruce Momjian
On Mon, Jun  8, 2015 at 02:01:52PM -0300, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun  8, 2015 at 12:39:24PM -0400, Robert Haas wrote:
> > > On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 12:36 PM, Bruce Momjian  wrote:
> > > > Yeah, I think if we needed this out in an emergency, we would do it, but
> > > > based on the volume of recent releases, it would be hard.  Are we seeing
> > > > user reports of failures even on the newest released versions, or are
> > > > these preventive fixes?
> > > 
> > > User reports of failures.  See the thread about upgrading from 9.4.1
> > > to 9.4.2 and having the server *fail to start*.
> > 
> > OK, are these fixed in 9.4.2 or would the same failure happen in 9.4.3?
> 
> The fixes are not yet in any released branch, hence the rush to get
> these out.

OK, now I understand.  :-O  We have known failures that are not patched,
hence the desire for a release.  

I am a little concerned we are getting into a case where community
members dedicated to this issue are asking for a release, and it is
going into the core black hole, meaning there is no visibility on what
actions core is taking to make a decision.  (This is not a criticism,
but rather an observation of how it looks from a non-core-member
perspective.)

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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Alvaro Herrera
Bruce Momjian wrote:
> On Mon, Jun  8, 2015 at 12:39:24PM -0400, Robert Haas wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 12:36 PM, Bruce Momjian  wrote:
> > > Yeah, I think if we needed this out in an emergency, we would do it, but
> > > based on the volume of recent releases, it would be hard.  Are we seeing
> > > user reports of failures even on the newest released versions, or are
> > > these preventive fixes?
> > 
> > User reports of failures.  See the thread about upgrading from 9.4.1
> > to 9.4.2 and having the server *fail to start*.
> 
> OK, are these fixed in 9.4.2 or would the same failure happen in 9.4.3?

The fixes are not yet in any released branch, hence the rush to get
these out.

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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Bruce Momjian
On Mon, Jun  8, 2015 at 01:53:42PM -0300, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> * people with the wrong oldestMulti setting in pg_control (which would
> be due to a buggy pg_upgrade being used long ago) will be unable to
> start if they upgrade to 9.3.7 or 9.3.8.  A solution for them would be
> to downgrade to 9.3.6.  We had reports of this problem starting just a
> couple of days after we released 9.4.2, I think.
> 
> * We had a customer unable to refresh their base backups once they
> upgraded to 9.3.7; taking a new base backup would fail with a very
> similar error to those above (except no buggy pg_upgrade was involved).
> They seem to have gotten from under that problem by removing from
> crontab a script that ran whole-table vacuuming more frequently than
> with default settings.  Their data is 3 TB in size, so the basebackup
> takes long enough that multixact truncations occured while the base
> backups were running, every time, so they were unrestorable.
> 
> (Actually I just checked and it seems they haven't verified that they
> can take a new base backup -- the new one is still running.)
> 
> Anyway my point is that for some guys these bugs are pretty critical.

OK, thanks for the summary.  I assume they would still have problems
with 9.4.3.

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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Bruce Momjian
On Mon, Jun  8, 2015 at 12:39:24PM -0400, Robert Haas wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 12:36 PM, Bruce Momjian  wrote:
> > Yeah, I think if we needed this out in an emergency, we would do it, but
> > based on the volume of recent releases, it would be hard.  Are we seeing
> > user reports of failures even on the newest released versions, or are
> > these preventive fixes?
> 
> User reports of failures.  See the thread about upgrading from 9.4.1
> to 9.4.2 and having the server *fail to start*.

OK, are these fixed in 9.4.2 or would the same failure happen in 9.4.3?

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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Alvaro Herrera
Bruce Momjian wrote:
> On Mon, Jun  8, 2015 at 11:40:43AM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> > Robert Haas  writes:
> > > So, when shall we do all of this releasing?  It seems like we could do
> > > stage-one of the multixact fixing this week, and then figure out how
> > > to do the other stuff after PGCon.  Alternatively, we can let the
> > > latest round of changes that are already in the tree settle until
> > > after PGCon, and plan a release for stage-one of the multixact fixing
> > > then.  Whichever we pick, we then need to figure out the timetable for
> > > the rest of it.
> > 
> > I think we've already basically missed the window for releases this week.
> > Not that we couldn't physically do it, but that we normally give the
> > packagers more than one day's notice.  (There's also the fact that we've
> > already asked them to do two releases in the past three weeks.)
> 
> Yeah, I think if we needed this out in an emergency, we would do it, but
> based on the volume of recent releases, it would be hard.  Are we seeing
> user reports of failures even on the newest released versions, or are
> these preventive fixes?

* people with the wrong oldestMulti setting in pg_control (which would
be due to a buggy pg_upgrade being used long ago) will be unable to
start if they upgrade to 9.3.7 or 9.3.8.  A solution for them would be
to downgrade to 9.3.6.  We had reports of this problem starting just a
couple of days after we released 9.4.2, I think.

* We had a customer unable to refresh their base backups once they
upgraded to 9.3.7; taking a new base backup would fail with a very
similar error to those above (except no buggy pg_upgrade was involved).
They seem to have gotten from under that problem by removing from
crontab a script that ran whole-table vacuuming more frequently than
with default settings.  Their data is 3 TB in size, so the basebackup
takes long enough that multixact truncations occured while the base
backups were running, every time, so they were unrestorable.

(Actually I just checked and it seems they haven't verified that they
can take a new base backup -- the new one is still running.)

Anyway my point is that for some guys these bugs are pretty critical.

-- 
Álvaro Herrerahttp://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services


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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Robert Haas
On Mon, Jun 8, 2015 at 12:36 PM, Bruce Momjian  wrote:
> Yeah, I think if we needed this out in an emergency, we would do it, but
> based on the volume of recent releases, it would be hard.  Are we seeing
> user reports of failures even on the newest released versions, or are
> these preventive fixes?

User reports of failures.  See the thread about upgrading from 9.4.1
to 9.4.2 and having the server *fail to start*.

-- 
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company


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Re: [CORE] [HACKERS] back-branch multixact fixes & 9.5 alpha/beta: schedule

2015-06-08 Thread Bruce Momjian
On Mon, Jun  8, 2015 at 11:40:43AM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> Robert Haas  writes:
> > So, when shall we do all of this releasing?  It seems like we could do
> > stage-one of the multixact fixing this week, and then figure out how
> > to do the other stuff after PGCon.  Alternatively, we can let the
> > latest round of changes that are already in the tree settle until
> > after PGCon, and plan a release for stage-one of the multixact fixing
> > then.  Whichever we pick, we then need to figure out the timetable for
> > the rest of it.
> 
> I think we've already basically missed the window for releases this week.
> Not that we couldn't physically do it, but that we normally give the
> packagers more than one day's notice.  (There's also the fact that we've
> already asked them to do two releases in the past three weeks.)

Yeah, I think if we needed this out in an emergency, we would do it, but
based on the volume of recent releases, it would be hard.  Are we seeing
user reports of failures even on the newest released versions, or are
these preventive fixes?

> I propose that we plan for back-branch releases the week after PGCon
> (wrap on Monday June 22), and 9.5alpha1 the week after that (wrap on
> Monday June 29).  If there's a need for an additional round of back-branch
> releases shortly thereafter, we'll deal with that as needed.

I am working on the 9.5 release notes so will be done long before that
date.  I will finish sooner so we can do the week-long release notes
feedback session.  :-)

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

  + Everyone has their own god. +


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