1 /*-------------------------------------------------------------------------
2  *
3  * bgwriter.c
4  *
5  * The background writer (bgwriter) is new as of Postgres 8.0.  It attempts
6  * to keep regular backends from having to write out dirty shared buffers
7  * (which they would only do when needing to free a shared buffer to read in
8  * another page).  In the best scenario all writes from shared buffers will
9  * be issued by the background writer process.  However, regular backends are
10  * still empowered to issue writes if the bgwriter fails to maintain enough
11  * clean shared buffers.
12  *
13  * As of Postgres 9.2 the bgwriter no longer handles checkpoints.
14  *
15  * The bgwriter is started by the postmaster as soon as the startup subprocess
16  * finishes, or as soon as recovery begins if we are doing archive recovery.
17  * It remains alive until the postmaster commands it to terminate.
18  * Normal termination is by SIGTERM, which instructs the bgwriter to exit(0).
19  * Emergency termination is by SIGQUIT; like any backend, the bgwriter will
20  * simply abort and exit on SIGQUIT.
21  *
22  * If the bgwriter exits unexpectedly, the postmaster treats that the same
23  * as a backend crash: shared memory may be corrupted, so remaining backends
24  * should be killed by SIGQUIT and then a recovery cycle started.
25  *
26  *
27  * Portions Copyright (c) 1996-2020, PostgreSQL Global Development Group
28  *
29  *
30  * IDENTIFICATION
31  *	  src/backend/postmaster/bgwriter.c
32  *
33  *-------------------------------------------------------------------------
34  */
35 #include "postgres.h"
36 
37 #include "access/xlog.h"
38 #include "access/xlog_internal.h"
39 #include "libpq/pqsignal.h"
40 #include "miscadmin.h"
41 #include "pgstat.h"
42 #include "postmaster/bgwriter.h"
43 #include "postmaster/interrupt.h"
44 #include "storage/buf_internals.h"
45 #include "storage/bufmgr.h"
46 #include "storage/condition_variable.h"
47 #include "storage/fd.h"
48 #include "storage/ipc.h"
49 #include "storage/lwlock.h"
50 #include "storage/proc.h"
51 #include "storage/procsignal.h"
52 #include "storage/shmem.h"
53 #include "storage/smgr.h"
54 #include "storage/spin.h"
55 #include "storage/standby.h"
56 #include "utils/guc.h"
57 #include "utils/memutils.h"
58 #include "utils/resowner.h"
59 #include "utils/timestamp.h"
60 
61 /*
62  * GUC parameters
63  */
64 int			BgWriterDelay = 200;
65 
66 /*
67  * Multiplier to apply to BgWriterDelay when we decide to hibernate.
68  * (Perhaps this needs to be configurable?)
69  */
70 #define HIBERNATE_FACTOR			50
71 
72 /*
73  * Interval in which standby snapshots are logged into the WAL stream, in
74  * milliseconds.
75  */
76 #define LOG_SNAPSHOT_INTERVAL_MS 15000
77 
78 /*
79  * LSN and timestamp at which we last issued a LogStandbySnapshot(), to avoid
80  * doing so too often or repeatedly if there has been no other write activity
81  * in the system.
82  */
83 static TimestampTz last_snapshot_ts;
84 static XLogRecPtr last_snapshot_lsn = InvalidXLogRecPtr;
85 
86 
87 /*
88  * Main entry point for bgwriter process
89  *
90  * This is invoked from AuxiliaryProcessMain, which has already created the
91  * basic execution environment, but not enabled signals yet.
92  */
93 void
BackgroundWriterMain(void)94 BackgroundWriterMain(void)
95 {
96 	sigjmp_buf	local_sigjmp_buf;
97 	MemoryContext bgwriter_context;
98 	bool		prev_hibernate;
99 	WritebackContext wb_context;
100 
101 	/*
102 	 * Properly accept or ignore signals that might be sent to us.
103 	 */
104 	pqsignal(SIGHUP, SignalHandlerForConfigReload);
105 	pqsignal(SIGINT, SIG_IGN);
106 	pqsignal(SIGTERM, SignalHandlerForShutdownRequest);
107 	pqsignal(SIGQUIT, SignalHandlerForCrashExit);
108 	pqsignal(SIGALRM, SIG_IGN);
109 	pqsignal(SIGPIPE, SIG_IGN);
110 	pqsignal(SIGUSR1, procsignal_sigusr1_handler);
111 	pqsignal(SIGUSR2, SIG_IGN);
112 
113 	/*
114 	 * Reset some signals that are accepted by postmaster but not here
115 	 */
116 	pqsignal(SIGCHLD, SIG_DFL);
117 
118 	/* We allow SIGQUIT (quickdie) at all times */
119 	sigdelset(&BlockSig, SIGQUIT);
120 
121 	/*
122 	 * We just started, assume there has been either a shutdown or
123 	 * end-of-recovery snapshot.
124 	 */
125 	last_snapshot_ts = GetCurrentTimestamp();
126 
127 	/*
128 	 * Create a memory context that we will do all our work in.  We do this so
129 	 * that we can reset the context during error recovery and thereby avoid
130 	 * possible memory leaks.  Formerly this code just ran in
131 	 * TopMemoryContext, but resetting that would be a really bad idea.
132 	 */
133 	bgwriter_context = AllocSetContextCreate(TopMemoryContext,
134 											 "Background Writer",
135 											 ALLOCSET_DEFAULT_SIZES);
136 	MemoryContextSwitchTo(bgwriter_context);
137 
138 	WritebackContextInit(&wb_context, &bgwriter_flush_after);
139 
140 	/*
141 	 * If an exception is encountered, processing resumes here.
142 	 *
143 	 * See notes in postgres.c about the design of this coding.
144 	 */
145 	if (sigsetjmp(local_sigjmp_buf, 1) != 0)
146 	{
147 		/* Since not using PG_TRY, must reset error stack by hand */
148 		error_context_stack = NULL;
149 
150 		/* Prevent interrupts while cleaning up */
151 		HOLD_INTERRUPTS();
152 
153 		/* Report the error to the server log */
154 		EmitErrorReport();
155 
156 		/*
157 		 * These operations are really just a minimal subset of
158 		 * AbortTransaction().  We don't have very many resources to worry
159 		 * about in bgwriter, but we do have LWLocks, buffers, and temp files.
160 		 */
161 		LWLockReleaseAll();
162 		ConditionVariableCancelSleep();
163 		AbortBufferIO();
164 		UnlockBuffers();
165 		ReleaseAuxProcessResources(false);
166 		AtEOXact_Buffers(false);
167 		AtEOXact_SMgr();
168 		AtEOXact_Files(false);
169 		AtEOXact_HashTables(false);
170 
171 		/*
172 		 * Now return to normal top-level context and clear ErrorContext for
173 		 * next time.
174 		 */
175 		MemoryContextSwitchTo(bgwriter_context);
176 		FlushErrorState();
177 
178 		/* Flush any leaked data in the top-level context */
179 		MemoryContextResetAndDeleteChildren(bgwriter_context);
180 
181 		/* re-initialize to avoid repeated errors causing problems */
182 		WritebackContextInit(&wb_context, &bgwriter_flush_after);
183 
184 		/* Now we can allow interrupts again */
185 		RESUME_INTERRUPTS();
186 
187 		/*
188 		 * Sleep at least 1 second after any error.  A write error is likely
189 		 * to be repeated, and we don't want to be filling the error logs as
190 		 * fast as we can.
191 		 */
192 		pg_usleep(1000000L);
193 
194 		/*
195 		 * Close all open files after any error.  This is helpful on Windows,
196 		 * where holding deleted files open causes various strange errors.
197 		 * It's not clear we need it elsewhere, but shouldn't hurt.
198 		 */
199 		smgrcloseall();
200 
201 		/* Report wait end here, when there is no further possibility of wait */
202 		pgstat_report_wait_end();
203 	}
204 
205 	/* We can now handle ereport(ERROR) */
206 	PG_exception_stack = &local_sigjmp_buf;
207 
208 	/*
209 	 * Unblock signals (they were blocked when the postmaster forked us)
210 	 */
211 	PG_SETMASK(&UnBlockSig);
212 
213 	/*
214 	 * Reset hibernation state after any error.
215 	 */
216 	prev_hibernate = false;
217 
218 	/*
219 	 * Loop forever
220 	 */
221 	for (;;)
222 	{
223 		bool		can_hibernate;
224 		int			rc;
225 
226 		/* Clear any already-pending wakeups */
227 		ResetLatch(MyLatch);
228 
229 		HandleMainLoopInterrupts();
230 
231 		/*
232 		 * Do one cycle of dirty-buffer writing.
233 		 */
234 		can_hibernate = BgBufferSync(&wb_context);
235 
236 		/*
237 		 * Send off activity statistics to the stats collector
238 		 */
239 		pgstat_send_bgwriter();
240 
241 		if (FirstCallSinceLastCheckpoint())
242 		{
243 			/*
244 			 * After any checkpoint, close all smgr files.  This is so we
245 			 * won't hang onto smgr references to deleted files indefinitely.
246 			 */
247 			smgrcloseall();
248 		}
249 
250 		/*
251 		 * Log a new xl_running_xacts every now and then so replication can
252 		 * get into a consistent state faster (think of suboverflowed
253 		 * snapshots) and clean up resources (locks, KnownXids*) more
254 		 * frequently. The costs of this are relatively low, so doing it 4
255 		 * times (LOG_SNAPSHOT_INTERVAL_MS) a minute seems fine.
256 		 *
257 		 * We assume the interval for writing xl_running_xacts is
258 		 * significantly bigger than BgWriterDelay, so we don't complicate the
259 		 * overall timeout handling but just assume we're going to get called
260 		 * often enough even if hibernation mode is active. It's not that
261 		 * important that LOG_SNAPSHOT_INTERVAL_MS is met strictly. To make
262 		 * sure we're not waking the disk up unnecessarily on an idle system
263 		 * we check whether there has been any WAL inserted since the last
264 		 * time we've logged a running xacts.
265 		 *
266 		 * We do this logging in the bgwriter as it is the only process that
267 		 * is run regularly and returns to its mainloop all the time. E.g.
268 		 * Checkpointer, when active, is barely ever in its mainloop and thus
269 		 * makes it hard to log regularly.
270 		 */
271 		if (XLogStandbyInfoActive() && !RecoveryInProgress())
272 		{
273 			TimestampTz timeout = 0;
274 			TimestampTz now = GetCurrentTimestamp();
275 
276 			timeout = TimestampTzPlusMilliseconds(last_snapshot_ts,
277 												  LOG_SNAPSHOT_INTERVAL_MS);
278 
279 			/*
280 			 * Only log if enough time has passed and interesting records have
281 			 * been inserted since the last snapshot.  Have to compare with <=
282 			 * instead of < because GetLastImportantRecPtr() points at the
283 			 * start of a record, whereas last_snapshot_lsn points just past
284 			 * the end of the record.
285 			 */
286 			if (now >= timeout &&
287 				last_snapshot_lsn <= GetLastImportantRecPtr())
288 			{
289 				last_snapshot_lsn = LogStandbySnapshot();
290 				last_snapshot_ts = now;
291 			}
292 		}
293 
294 		/*
295 		 * Sleep until we are signaled or BgWriterDelay has elapsed.
296 		 *
297 		 * Note: the feedback control loop in BgBufferSync() expects that we
298 		 * will call it every BgWriterDelay msec.  While it's not critical for
299 		 * correctness that that be exact, the feedback loop might misbehave
300 		 * if we stray too far from that.  Hence, avoid loading this process
301 		 * down with latch events that are likely to happen frequently during
302 		 * normal operation.
303 		 */
304 		rc = WaitLatch(MyLatch,
305 					   WL_LATCH_SET | WL_TIMEOUT | WL_EXIT_ON_PM_DEATH,
306 					   BgWriterDelay /* ms */ , WAIT_EVENT_BGWRITER_MAIN);
307 
308 		/*
309 		 * If no latch event and BgBufferSync says nothing's happening, extend
310 		 * the sleep in "hibernation" mode, where we sleep for much longer
311 		 * than bgwriter_delay says.  Fewer wakeups save electricity.  When a
312 		 * backend starts using buffers again, it will wake us up by setting
313 		 * our latch.  Because the extra sleep will persist only as long as no
314 		 * buffer allocations happen, this should not distort the behavior of
315 		 * BgBufferSync's control loop too badly; essentially, it will think
316 		 * that the system-wide idle interval didn't exist.
317 		 *
318 		 * There is a race condition here, in that a backend might allocate a
319 		 * buffer between the time BgBufferSync saw the alloc count as zero
320 		 * and the time we call StrategyNotifyBgWriter.  While it's not
321 		 * critical that we not hibernate anyway, we try to reduce the odds of
322 		 * that by only hibernating when BgBufferSync says nothing's happening
323 		 * for two consecutive cycles.  Also, we mitigate any possible
324 		 * consequences of a missed wakeup by not hibernating forever.
325 		 */
326 		if (rc == WL_TIMEOUT && can_hibernate && prev_hibernate)
327 		{
328 			/* Ask for notification at next buffer allocation */
329 			StrategyNotifyBgWriter(MyProc->pgprocno);
330 			/* Sleep ... */
331 			(void) WaitLatch(MyLatch,
332 							 WL_LATCH_SET | WL_TIMEOUT | WL_EXIT_ON_PM_DEATH,
333 							 BgWriterDelay * HIBERNATE_FACTOR,
334 							 WAIT_EVENT_BGWRITER_HIBERNATE);
335 			/* Reset the notification request in case we timed out */
336 			StrategyNotifyBgWriter(-1);
337 		}
338 
339 		prev_hibernate = can_hibernate;
340 	}
341 }
342