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[PATCH 2/4] Refactor index_concurrently_create_copy() for use with REPACK (CONCURRENTLY).
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* [PATCH 2/4] Refactor index_concurrently_create_copy() for use with REPACK (CONCURRENTLY).
@ 2025-12-04 17:20  Antonin Houska <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Antonin Houska @ 2025-12-04 17:20 UTC (permalink / raw)

This patch moves the code to index_create_copy() and adds a "concurrently"
parameter so it can be used by REPACK (CONCURRENTLY).

With the CONCURRENTLY option, REPACK cannot simply swap the heap file and
rebuild its indexes. Instead, it needs to build a separate set of indexes
(including system catalog entries) *before* the actual swap, to reduce the
time AccessExclusiveLock needs to be held for.
---
 src/backend/catalog/index.c      | 54 +++++++++++++++++++++++---------
 src/backend/commands/indexcmds.c |  6 ++--
 src/backend/nodes/makefuncs.c    |  9 +++---
 src/include/catalog/index.h      |  3 ++
 src/include/nodes/makefuncs.h    |  4 ++-
 5 files changed, 54 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/catalog/index.c b/src/backend/catalog/index.c
index 08d4b8e44d7..cf2d0abf370 100644
--- a/src/backend/catalog/index.c
+++ b/src/backend/catalog/index.c
@@ -1290,15 +1290,32 @@ index_create(Relation heapRelation,
 /*
  * index_concurrently_create_copy
  *
- * Create concurrently an index based on the definition of the one provided by
- * caller.  The index is inserted into catalogs and needs to be built later
- * on.  This is called during concurrent reindex processing.
- *
- * "tablespaceOid" is the tablespace to use for this index.
+ * Variant of index_create_copy(), called during concurrent reindex
+ * processing.
  */
 Oid
 index_concurrently_create_copy(Relation heapRelation, Oid oldIndexId,
 							   Oid tablespaceOid, const char *newName)
+{
+	return index_create_copy(heapRelation, oldIndexId, tablespaceOid, newName,
+							 true);
+}
+
+/*
+ * index_create_copy
+ *
+ * Create an index based on the definition of the one provided by caller.  The
+ * index is inserted into catalogs. If 'concurrently' is TRUE, it needs to be
+ * built later on, otherwise it's built immediately.
+ *
+ * "tablespaceOid" is the tablespace to use for this index.
+ *
+ * The actual implementation of index_concurrently_create_copy(), reusable for
+ * other purposes.
+ */
+Oid
+index_create_copy(Relation heapRelation, Oid oldIndexId, Oid tablespaceOid,
+				  const char *newName, bool concurrently)
 {
 	Relation	indexRelation;
 	IndexInfo  *oldInfo,
@@ -1317,6 +1334,7 @@ index_concurrently_create_copy(Relation heapRelation, Oid oldIndexId,
 	List	   *indexColNames = NIL;
 	List	   *indexExprs = NIL;
 	List	   *indexPreds = NIL;
+	int			flags = 0;
 
 	indexRelation = index_open(oldIndexId, RowExclusiveLock);
 
@@ -1327,7 +1345,7 @@ index_concurrently_create_copy(Relation heapRelation, Oid oldIndexId,
 	 * Concurrent build of an index with exclusion constraints is not
 	 * supported.
 	 */
-	if (oldInfo->ii_ExclusionOps != NULL)
+	if (oldInfo->ii_ExclusionOps != NULL && concurrently)
 		ereport(ERROR,
 				(errcode(ERRCODE_FEATURE_NOT_SUPPORTED),
 				 errmsg("concurrent index creation for exclusion constraints is not supported")));
@@ -1383,9 +1401,7 @@ index_concurrently_create_copy(Relation heapRelation, Oid oldIndexId,
 	}
 
 	/*
-	 * Build the index information for the new index.  Note that rebuild of
-	 * indexes with exclusion constraints is not supported, hence there is no
-	 * need to fill all the ii_Exclusion* fields.
+	 * Build the index information for the new index.
 	 */
 	newInfo = makeIndexInfo(oldInfo->ii_NumIndexAttrs,
 							oldInfo->ii_NumIndexKeyAttrs,
@@ -1394,10 +1410,13 @@ index_concurrently_create_copy(Relation heapRelation, Oid oldIndexId,
 							indexPreds,
 							oldInfo->ii_Unique,
 							oldInfo->ii_NullsNotDistinct,
-							false,	/* not ready for inserts */
-							true,
+							!concurrently,	/* isready */
+							concurrently,	/* concurrent */
 							indexRelation->rd_indam->amsummarizing,
-							oldInfo->ii_WithoutOverlaps);
+							oldInfo->ii_WithoutOverlaps,
+							oldInfo->ii_ExclusionOps,
+							oldInfo->ii_ExclusionProcs,
+							oldInfo->ii_ExclusionStrats);
 
 	/*
 	 * Extract the list of column names and the column numbers for the new
@@ -1435,6 +1454,9 @@ index_concurrently_create_copy(Relation heapRelation, Oid oldIndexId,
 		stattargets[i].isnull = isnull;
 	}
 
+	if (concurrently)
+		flags = INDEX_CREATE_SKIP_BUILD | INDEX_CREATE_CONCURRENT;
+
 	/*
 	 * Now create the new index.
 	 *
@@ -1458,7 +1480,7 @@ index_concurrently_create_copy(Relation heapRelation, Oid oldIndexId,
 							  indcoloptions->values,
 							  stattargets,
 							  reloptionsDatum,
-							  INDEX_CREATE_SKIP_BUILD | INDEX_CREATE_CONCURRENT,
+							  flags,
 							  0,
 							  true, /* allow table to be a system catalog? */
 							  false,	/* is_internal? */
@@ -2452,7 +2474,8 @@ BuildIndexInfo(Relation index)
 					   indexStruct->indisready,
 					   false,
 					   index->rd_indam->amsummarizing,
-					   indexStruct->indisexclusion && indexStruct->indisunique);
+					   indexStruct->indisexclusion && indexStruct->indisunique,
+					   NULL, NULL, NULL);
 
 	/* fill in attribute numbers */
 	for (i = 0; i < numAtts; i++)
@@ -2512,7 +2535,8 @@ BuildDummyIndexInfo(Relation index)
 					   indexStruct->indisready,
 					   false,
 					   index->rd_indam->amsummarizing,
-					   indexStruct->indisexclusion && indexStruct->indisunique);
+					   indexStruct->indisexclusion && indexStruct->indisunique,
+					   NULL, NULL, NULL);
 
 	/* fill in attribute numbers */
 	for (i = 0; i < numAtts; i++)
diff --git a/src/backend/commands/indexcmds.c b/src/backend/commands/indexcmds.c
index a8033be4bff..9cc94884abc 100644
--- a/src/backend/commands/indexcmds.c
+++ b/src/backend/commands/indexcmds.c
@@ -242,7 +242,8 @@ CheckIndexCompatible(Oid oldId,
 	 */
 	indexInfo = makeIndexInfo(numberOfAttributes, numberOfAttributes,
 							  accessMethodId, NIL, NIL, false, false,
-							  false, false, amsummarizing, isWithoutOverlaps);
+							  false, false, amsummarizing, isWithoutOverlaps,
+							  NULL, NULL, NULL);
 	typeIds = palloc_array(Oid, numberOfAttributes);
 	collationIds = palloc_array(Oid, numberOfAttributes);
 	opclassIds = palloc_array(Oid, numberOfAttributes);
@@ -927,7 +928,8 @@ DefineIndex(Oid tableId,
 							  !concurrent,
 							  concurrent,
 							  amissummarizing,
-							  stmt->iswithoutoverlaps);
+							  stmt->iswithoutoverlaps,
+							  NULL, NULL, NULL);
 
 	typeIds = palloc_array(Oid, numberOfAttributes);
 	collationIds = palloc_array(Oid, numberOfAttributes);
diff --git a/src/backend/nodes/makefuncs.c b/src/backend/nodes/makefuncs.c
index e2d9e9be41a..c5d5a37f514 100644
--- a/src/backend/nodes/makefuncs.c
+++ b/src/backend/nodes/makefuncs.c
@@ -834,7 +834,8 @@ IndexInfo *
 makeIndexInfo(int numattrs, int numkeyattrs, Oid amoid, List *expressions,
 			  List *predicates, bool unique, bool nulls_not_distinct,
 			  bool isready, bool concurrent, bool summarizing,
-			  bool withoutoverlaps)
+			  bool withoutoverlaps, Oid *exclusion_ops, Oid *exclusion_procs,
+			  uint16 *exclusion_strats)
 {
 	IndexInfo  *n = makeNode(IndexInfo);
 
@@ -863,9 +864,9 @@ makeIndexInfo(int numattrs, int numkeyattrs, Oid amoid, List *expressions,
 	n->ii_PredicateState = NULL;
 
 	/* exclusion constraints */
-	n->ii_ExclusionOps = NULL;
-	n->ii_ExclusionProcs = NULL;
-	n->ii_ExclusionStrats = NULL;
+	n->ii_ExclusionOps = exclusion_ops;
+	n->ii_ExclusionProcs = exclusion_procs;
+	n->ii_ExclusionStrats = exclusion_strats;
 
 	/* speculative inserts */
 	n->ii_UniqueOps = NULL;
diff --git a/src/include/catalog/index.h b/src/include/catalog/index.h
index dda95e54903..4bf909078d8 100644
--- a/src/include/catalog/index.h
+++ b/src/include/catalog/index.h
@@ -99,6 +99,9 @@ extern Oid	index_concurrently_create_copy(Relation heapRelation,
 										   Oid oldIndexId,
 										   Oid tablespaceOid,
 										   const char *newName);
+extern Oid	index_create_copy(Relation heapRelation, Oid oldIndexId,
+							  Oid tablespaceOid, const char *newName,
+							  bool concurrently);
 
 extern void index_concurrently_build(Oid heapRelationId,
 									 Oid indexRelationId);
diff --git a/src/include/nodes/makefuncs.h b/src/include/nodes/makefuncs.h
index 5473ce9a288..9ff7159ff0c 100644
--- a/src/include/nodes/makefuncs.h
+++ b/src/include/nodes/makefuncs.h
@@ -99,7 +99,9 @@ extern IndexInfo *makeIndexInfo(int numattrs, int numkeyattrs, Oid amoid,
 								List *expressions, List *predicates,
 								bool unique, bool nulls_not_distinct,
 								bool isready, bool concurrent,
-								bool summarizing, bool withoutoverlaps);
+								bool summarizing, bool withoutoverlaps,
+								Oid *exclusion_ops, Oid *exclusion_procs,
+								uint16 *exclusion_strats);
 
 extern Node *makeStringConst(char *str, int location);
 extern DefElem *makeDefElem(char *name, Node *arg, int location);
-- 
2.47.3


--=-=-=
Content-Type: text/x-diff
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=v26-0003-Move-conversion-of-a-historic-to-MVCC-snapshot-to-a-.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index ba9bbb6..74fc499 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -107,6 +107,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -199,6 +201,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -567,6 +570,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -920,16 +924,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -942,8 +967,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1373,6 +1398,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg16.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index a758e1a..d08b122 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -200,6 +202,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -568,6 +571,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -921,16 +925,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -943,8 +968,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1374,6 +1399,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg17.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 9b7187e..21d21ea 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -115,6 +115,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -284,6 +286,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -703,6 +706,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -983,16 +987,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1005,8 +1030,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1924,6 +1949,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 8cf6ecf..0bbad25 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index acb508c..1d867d8 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg18.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index eedc5c8..c4d5cb1 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -282,6 +284,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -701,6 +704,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -981,16 +985,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1003,8 +1028,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1923,6 +1948,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 4bcd4e9..03fbd97 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 3e8929a..db2a21d 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc--






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 6cc2acb..7dfc311 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -310,6 +312,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -739,6 +742,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -1017,16 +1021,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1039,8 +1064,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1978,6 +2003,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 81efebc..21f1362 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index c1f4ab5..92abe13 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg15.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index ba9bbb6..74fc499 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -107,6 +107,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -199,6 +201,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -567,6 +570,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -920,16 +924,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -942,8 +967,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1373,6 +1398,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg16.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index a758e1a..d08b122 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -200,6 +202,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -568,6 +571,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -921,16 +925,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -943,8 +968,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1374,6 +1399,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg17.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 9b7187e..21d21ea 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -115,6 +115,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -284,6 +286,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -703,6 +706,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -983,16 +987,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1005,8 +1030,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1924,6 +1949,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 8cf6ecf..0bbad25 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index acb508c..1d867d8 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg18.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index eedc5c8..c4d5cb1 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -282,6 +284,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -701,6 +704,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -981,16 +985,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1003,8 +1028,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1923,6 +1948,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 4bcd4e9..03fbd97 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 3e8929a..db2a21d 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc--






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 6cc2acb..7dfc311 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -310,6 +312,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -739,6 +742,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -1017,16 +1021,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1039,8 +1064,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1978,6 +2003,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 81efebc..21f1362 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index c1f4ab5..92abe13 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg15.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index ba9bbb6..74fc499 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -107,6 +107,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -199,6 +201,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -567,6 +570,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -920,16 +924,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -942,8 +967,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1373,6 +1398,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg16.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index a758e1a..d08b122 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -200,6 +202,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -568,6 +571,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -921,16 +925,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -943,8 +968,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1374,6 +1399,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg17.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 9b7187e..21d21ea 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -115,6 +115,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -284,6 +286,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -703,6 +706,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -983,16 +987,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1005,8 +1030,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1924,6 +1949,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 8cf6ecf..0bbad25 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index acb508c..1d867d8 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg18.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index eedc5c8..c4d5cb1 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -282,6 +284,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -701,6 +704,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -981,16 +985,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1003,8 +1028,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1923,6 +1948,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 4bcd4e9..03fbd97 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 3e8929a..db2a21d 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc--






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 6cc2acb..7dfc311 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -310,6 +312,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -739,6 +742,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -1017,16 +1021,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1039,8 +1064,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1978,6 +2003,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 81efebc..21f1362 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index c1f4ab5..92abe13 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg15.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index ba9bbb6..74fc499 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -107,6 +107,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -199,6 +201,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -567,6 +570,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -920,16 +924,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -942,8 +967,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1373,6 +1398,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg16.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index a758e1a..d08b122 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -200,6 +202,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -568,6 +571,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -921,16 +925,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -943,8 +968,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1374,6 +1399,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg17.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 9b7187e..21d21ea 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -115,6 +115,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -284,6 +286,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -703,6 +706,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -983,16 +987,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1005,8 +1030,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1924,6 +1949,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 8cf6ecf..0bbad25 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index acb508c..1d867d8 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg18.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index eedc5c8..c4d5cb1 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -282,6 +284,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -701,6 +704,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -981,16 +985,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1003,8 +1028,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1923,6 +1948,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 4bcd4e9..03fbd97 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 3e8929a..db2a21d 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc--






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 6cc2acb..7dfc311 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -310,6 +312,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -739,6 +742,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -1017,16 +1021,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1039,8 +1064,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1978,6 +2003,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 81efebc..21f1362 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index c1f4ab5..92abe13 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg15.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index ba9bbb6..74fc499 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -107,6 +107,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -199,6 +201,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -567,6 +570,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -920,16 +924,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -942,8 +967,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1373,6 +1398,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg16.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index a758e1a..d08b122 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -200,6 +202,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -568,6 +571,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -921,16 +925,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -943,8 +968,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1374,6 +1399,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg17.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 9b7187e..21d21ea 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -115,6 +115,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -284,6 +286,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -703,6 +706,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -983,16 +987,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1005,8 +1030,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1924,6 +1949,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 8cf6ecf..0bbad25 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index acb508c..1d867d8 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg18.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index eedc5c8..c4d5cb1 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -282,6 +284,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -701,6 +704,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -981,16 +985,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1003,8 +1028,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1923,6 +1948,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 4bcd4e9..03fbd97 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 3e8929a..db2a21d 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc--






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 6cc2acb..7dfc311 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -310,6 +312,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -739,6 +742,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -1017,16 +1021,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1039,8 +1064,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1978,6 +2003,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 81efebc..21f1362 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index c1f4ab5..92abe13 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg15.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index eedc5c8..c4d5cb1 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -282,6 +284,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -701,6 +704,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -981,16 +985,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1003,8 +1028,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1923,6 +1948,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 4bcd4e9..03fbd97 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 3e8929a..db2a21d 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc--






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 6cc2acb..7dfc311 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -310,6 +312,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -739,6 +742,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -1017,16 +1021,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1039,8 +1064,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1978,6 +2003,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 81efebc..21f1362 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index c1f4ab5..92abe13 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg15.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 6cc2acb..7dfc311 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -310,6 +312,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -739,6 +742,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -1017,16 +1021,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1039,8 +1064,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1978,6 +2003,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 81efebc..21f1362 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index c1f4ab5..92abe13 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg15.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index ba9bbb6..74fc499 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -107,6 +107,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -199,6 +201,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -567,6 +570,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -920,16 +924,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -942,8 +967,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1373,6 +1398,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg16.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index a758e1a..d08b122 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -200,6 +202,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -568,6 +571,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -921,16 +925,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -943,8 +968,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1374,6 +1399,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg17.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 9b7187e..21d21ea 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -115,6 +115,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -284,6 +286,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -703,6 +706,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -983,16 +987,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1005,8 +1030,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1924,6 +1949,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 8cf6ecf..0bbad25 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index acb508c..1d867d8 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg18.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index eedc5c8..c4d5cb1 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -282,6 +284,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -701,6 +704,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -981,16 +985,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1003,8 +1028,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1923,6 +1948,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 4bcd4e9..03fbd97 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 3e8929a..db2a21d 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc--






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 6cc2acb..7dfc311 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -310,6 +312,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -739,6 +742,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -1017,16 +1021,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1039,8 +1064,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1978,6 +2003,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 81efebc..21f1362 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index c1f4ab5..92abe13 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg15.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index ba9bbb6..74fc499 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -107,6 +107,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -199,6 +201,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -567,6 +570,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -920,16 +924,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -942,8 +967,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1373,6 +1398,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg16.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index a758e1a..d08b122 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -200,6 +202,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -568,6 +571,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -921,16 +925,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -943,8 +968,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1374,6 +1399,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg17.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 9b7187e..21d21ea 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -115,6 +115,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -284,6 +286,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -703,6 +706,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -983,16 +987,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1005,8 +1030,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1924,6 +1949,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 8cf6ecf..0bbad25 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index acb508c..1d867d8 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg18.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index eedc5c8..c4d5cb1 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -282,6 +284,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -701,6 +704,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -981,16 +985,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1003,8 +1028,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1923,6 +1948,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 4bcd4e9..03fbd97 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 3e8929a..db2a21d 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc--






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 6cc2acb..7dfc311 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -310,6 +312,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -739,6 +742,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -1017,16 +1021,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1039,8 +1064,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1978,6 +2003,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 81efebc..21f1362 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index c1f4ab5..92abe13 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg15.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index ba9bbb6..74fc499 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -107,6 +107,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -199,6 +201,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -567,6 +570,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -920,16 +924,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -942,8 +967,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1373,6 +1398,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg16.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index a758e1a..d08b122 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -200,6 +202,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -568,6 +571,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -921,16 +925,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -943,8 +968,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1374,6 +1399,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg17.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 9b7187e..21d21ea 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -115,6 +115,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -284,6 +286,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -703,6 +706,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -983,16 +987,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1005,8 +1030,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1924,6 +1949,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 8cf6ecf..0bbad25 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index acb508c..1d867d8 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg18.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index eedc5c8..c4d5cb1 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -282,6 +284,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -701,6 +704,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -981,16 +985,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1003,8 +1028,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1923,6 +1948,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 4bcd4e9..03fbd97 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 3e8929a..db2a21d 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc--






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 6cc2acb..7dfc311 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -310,6 +312,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -739,6 +742,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -1017,16 +1021,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1039,8 +1064,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1978,6 +2003,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 81efebc..21f1362 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index c1f4ab5..92abe13 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg15.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index ba9bbb6..74fc499 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -107,6 +107,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -199,6 +201,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -567,6 +570,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -920,16 +924,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -942,8 +967,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1373,6 +1398,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg16.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index a758e1a..d08b122 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -200,6 +202,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -568,6 +571,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -921,16 +925,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -943,8 +968,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1374,6 +1399,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg17.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 9b7187e..21d21ea 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -115,6 +115,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -284,6 +286,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -703,6 +706,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -983,16 +987,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1005,8 +1030,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1924,6 +1949,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 8cf6ecf..0bbad25 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index acb508c..1d867d8 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg18.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index eedc5c8..c4d5cb1 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -282,6 +284,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -701,6 +704,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -981,16 +985,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1003,8 +1028,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1923,6 +1948,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 4bcd4e9..03fbd97 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 3e8929a..db2a21d 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc--






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 6cc2acb..7dfc311 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -310,6 +312,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -739,6 +742,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -1017,16 +1021,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1039,8 +1064,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1978,6 +2003,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 81efebc..21f1362 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index c1f4ab5..92abe13 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg15.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index ba9bbb6..74fc499 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -107,6 +107,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -199,6 +201,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -567,6 +570,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -920,16 +924,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -942,8 +967,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1373,6 +1398,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg16.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index a758e1a..d08b122 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -200,6 +202,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -568,6 +571,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -921,16 +925,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -943,8 +968,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1374,6 +1399,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg17.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 9b7187e..21d21ea 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -115,6 +115,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -284,6 +286,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -703,6 +706,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -983,16 +987,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1005,8 +1030,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1924,6 +1949,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 8cf6ecf..0bbad25 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index acb508c..1d867d8 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg18.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index eedc5c8..c4d5cb1 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -282,6 +284,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -701,6 +704,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -981,16 +985,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1003,8 +1028,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1923,6 +1948,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 4bcd4e9..03fbd97 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 3e8929a..db2a21d 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc--






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 6cc2acb..7dfc311 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -310,6 +312,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -739,6 +742,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -1017,16 +1021,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1039,8 +1064,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1978,6 +2003,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 81efebc..21f1362 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index c1f4ab5..92abe13 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg15.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index ba9bbb6..74fc499 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -107,6 +107,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -199,6 +201,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -567,6 +570,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -920,16 +924,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -942,8 +967,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1373,6 +1398,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg16.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index a758e1a..d08b122 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -200,6 +202,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -568,6 +571,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, Jsonb *vars, Jsonb *json, bool throwErrors,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = vars ? 2 : 1;
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenseOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -921,16 +925,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -943,8 +968,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1374,6 +1399,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index eafb421..5e1bd19 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -792,6 +792,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 8163fc6..4c62fe2 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -155,6 +155,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg17.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 9b7187e..21d21ea 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -115,6 +115,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -284,6 +286,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -703,6 +706,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -983,16 +987,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1005,8 +1030,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1924,6 +1949,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 8cf6ecf..0bbad25 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index acb508c..1d867d8 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg18.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index eedc5c8..c4d5cb1 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -282,6 +284,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -701,6 +704,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -981,16 +985,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found, true);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1003,8 +1028,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1923,6 +1948,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 4bcd4e9..03fbd97 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index 3e8929a..db2a21d 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc--






^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread

* [PATCH] Collapse consecutive .** accessors for jsonpath exists queries
@ 2026-06-18 20:30  Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 472+ messages in thread

From: Andrey Rachitskiy @ 2026-06-18 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)

When a jsonpath expression contains multiple consecutive .** (jpiAny)
accessors, each one triggers a full subtree traversal in executeAnyItem().
k consecutive .** operators can degrade performance to O(N^k) on a document
with N nodes, even though a chain like $.**.**.** is redundant for existence
semantics and equivalent to a single $.** with merged level bounds.

This was reported as a performance problem when expressions such as
$.**.**.**.**.* are evaluated with @? against deeply nested JSON: the same
query without the trailing .* completes in sub-millisecond time, while the
form with redundant .** segments can run for many minutes.  A similar pattern
in strict mode can also provoke very large memory allocation attempts.

Collapse consecutive jpiAny nodes at execution time for existence queries
(@? and jsonb_path_exists), merging their level bounds and performing a
single executeAnyItem() pass.

Author: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Reported-by: Andrey Rachitskiy <[email protected]>
Backpatch-through: 15
---
 src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c     | 47 +++++++++++++++++++---
 .../src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out   | 40 ++++++++++++++++++
 src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql   | 11 +++++
 3 files changed, 93 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
index 6cc2acb..7dfc311 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/jsonpath_exec.c
@@ -113,6 +113,8 @@ typedef struct JsonPathExecContext
 										 * ignored */
 	bool		throwErrors;	/* with "false" all suppressible errors are
 								 * suppressed */
+	bool		existsOnly;		/* @? / jsonb_path_exists: may collapse
+							 * redundant consecutive .** accessors */
 	bool		useTz;
 } JsonPathExecContext;
 
@@ -310,6 +312,7 @@ static JsonPathExecResult executeAnyItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 										 JsonPathItem *jsp, JsonbContainer *jbc, JsonValueList *found,
 										 uint32 level, uint32 first, uint32 last,
 										 bool ignoreStructuralErrors, bool unwrapNext);
+static uint32 mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b);
 static JsonPathBool executePredicate(JsonPathExecContext *cxt,
 									 JsonPathItem *pred, JsonPathItem *larg, JsonPathItem *rarg,
 									 JsonbValue *jb, bool unwrapRightArg,
@@ -739,6 +742,7 @@ executeJsonPath(JsonPath *path, void *vars, JsonPathGetVarCallback getVar,
 	cxt.lastGeneratedObjectId = 1 + countVars(vars);
 	cxt.innermostArraySize = -1;
 	cxt.throwErrors = throwErrors;
+	cxt.existsOnly = (result == NULL);
 	cxt.useTz = useTz;
 
 	if (jspStrictAbsenceOfErrors(&cxt) && !result)
@@ -1017,16 +1021,37 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 
 		case jpiAny:
 			{
-				bool		hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				JsonPathItem elem;
+				bool		hasNext;
+				uint32		first;
+				uint32		last;
+
+				hasNext = jspGetNext(jsp, &elem);
+				first = jsp->content.anybounds.first;
+				last = jsp->content.anybounds.last;
+
+				/*
+				 * Consecutive .** accessors are redundant for existence
+				 * queries and multiply traversal cost.
+				 */
+				if (cxt->existsOnly)
+				{
+					while (hasNext && elem.type == jpiAny)
+					{
+						first = mergeAnyBound(first, elem.content.anybounds.first);
+						last = mergeAnyBound(last, elem.content.anybounds.last);
+						hasNext = jspGetNext(&elem, &elem);
+					}
+				}
 
 				/* first try without any intermediate steps */
-				if (jsp->content.anybounds.first == 0)
+				if (first == 0)
 				{
 					bool		savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
 					savedIgnoreStructuralErrors = cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors;
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = true;
-					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, &elem,
+					res = executeNextItem(cxt, jsp, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 										  jb, found);
 					cxt->ignoreStructuralErrors = savedIgnoreStructuralErrors;
 
@@ -1039,8 +1064,8 @@ executeItemOptUnwrapTarget(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 						(cxt, hasNext ? &elem : NULL,
 						 jb->val.binary.data, found,
 						 1,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.first,
-						 jsp->content.anybounds.last,
+						 first,
+						 last,
 						 true, jspAutoUnwrap(cxt));
 				break;
 			}
@@ -1978,6 +2003,18 @@ executeNestedBoolItem(JsonPathExecContext *cxt, JsonPathItem *jsp,
 	return res;
 }
 
+
+/*
+ * Merge level bounds of two consecutive .** accessors.
+ */
+static uint32
+mergeAnyBound(uint32 a, uint32 b)
+{
+	if (a == PG_UINT32_MAX || b == PG_UINT32_MAX)
+		return PG_UINT32_MAX;
+	return a + b;
+}
+
 /*
  * Implementation of several jsonpath nodes:
  *  - jpiAny (.** accessor),
diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
index 81efebc..21f1362 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/jsonb_jsonpath.out
@@ -785,6 +785,46 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
  t
 (1 row)
 
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ f
+(1 row)
+
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+ jsonb_path_exists 
+-------------------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+ ?column? 
+----------
+ t
+(1 row)
+
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
  jsonb_path_query 
 ------------------
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
index c1f4ab5..92abe13 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/jsonb_jsonpath.sql
@@ -150,6 +150,17 @@ select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{0 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to last}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{1 to 2}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
 select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**{2 to 3}.b ? ( @ > 0)';
+-- Redundant consecutive .** accessors are collapsed for existence queries
+-- (@? and jsonb_path_exists), avoiding multiplicative traversal cost.
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)';
+select jsonb '{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}' @? '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 99)';
+select jsonb_path_exists('{"a": {"c": {"b": 1}}}', '$.**.**.b ? (@ > 0)');
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'lax $.**.**.**.**';
+select ('[' || repeat('[', 50) || '0' || repeat(']', 50) || ']')::jsonb
+	@? 'strict $.**.**.**';
+
 
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.x))');
 select jsonb_path_query('{"g": {"x": 2}}', '$.g ? (exists (@.y))');
-- 
2.47.3

--MP_/BlgiDE/t55y8Vb7V2uvNybc
Content-Type: text/x-patch
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
 filename=0001-collapse-consecutive-jsonpath-any-pg15.patch



^ permalink  raw  reply  [nested|flat] 472+ messages in thread