Using force_parallel_mode Correctly

I admit it: I invented force_parallel_mode.  I believed then, and still believe now, that it is valuable for testing purposes.  Certainly, testing using force_parallel_mode=on or force_parallel_mode=regress has uncovered many bugs in PostgreSQL's parallel query support that would otherwise have been very difficult to find.  At the same time, it's pretty clear that this setting has caused enormous confusion, even among PostgreSQL experts.  In fact, in my experience, almost everyone who sets force_parallel_mode is doing so for the wrong reasons.

Who Contributed to PostgreSQL Development in 2017?

Last year, I wrote a post on who contributed to PostgreSQL development in 2016.  This is a (belated) version of the same information for 2017.  I used the same methodology this time for analyzing the commit log as I did last year.

Built-in Sharding for PostgreSQL

Built-in sharding is something that many people have wanted to see in PostgreSQL for a long time. It would be a gross exaggeration to say that PostgreSQL 11 (due to be released this fall) is capable of real sharding, but it seems pretty clear that the momentum is building. The capabilities already added are independently useful, but I believe that some time in the next few years we're going to reach a tipping point. Indeed, I think in a certain sense we already have. Just a few years ago, there was serious debate about whether PostgreSQL would ever have built-in sharding. Today, the question is about exactly which features are still needed.

DO or UNDO - there is no VACUUM

What if PostgreSQL didn’t need VACUUM at all? This seems hard to imagine. After all, PostgreSQL uses multi-version concurrency control (MVCC), and if you create multiple versions of rows, you have to eventually get rid of the row versions somehow. In PostgreSQL, VACUUM is in charge of making sure that happens, and the autovacuum process is in charge of making sure that happens soon enough. Yet, other schemes are possible, as shown by the fact that not all relational databases handle MVCC in the same way, and there are reasons to believe that PostgreSQL could benefit significantly from adopting a new approach. In fact, many of my colleagues at EnterpriseDB are busy implementing a new approach, and today I’d like to tell you a little bit about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

The State of VACUUM

In a recent blog post, I talked about why every system that implements MVCC needs some scheme for removing old row versions, and how VACUUM meets that need for PostgreSQL. In this post, I’d like to examine the history of VACUUM improvements in recent years, the state of VACUUM as it exists in PostgreSQL today, and how it might be improved in the future.