Subject: [PATCH 1/2] Error out any process that would block at REPACK

From: Antonin Houska <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2026 17:35:47 +0200

Any process waiting on REPACK to release its lock would actually cause
it to deadlock when it tries to upgrade its lock to AEL, losing all work
done to that point.  We avoid this by teaching the deadlock detector to
raise an error when this condition is detected.
---
 src/backend/commands/repack.c                 | 47 ++++++++---
 src/backend/storage/lmgr/deadlock.c           | 15 ++++
 src/include/storage/proc.h                    |  6 +-
 src/test/modules/injection_points/Makefile    |  1 +
 .../expected/repack_deadlock.out              | 63 ++++++++++++++
 src/test/modules/injection_points/meson.build |  1 +
 .../specs/repack_deadlock.spec                | 83 +++++++++++++++++++
 7 files changed, 201 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 src/test/modules/injection_points/expected/repack_deadlock.out
 create mode 100644 src/test/modules/injection_points/specs/repack_deadlock.spec

diff --git a/src/backend/commands/repack.c b/src/backend/commands/repack.c
index 20dad22c4b7..a5f5df77291 100644
--- a/src/backend/commands/repack.c
+++ b/src/backend/commands/repack.c
@@ -285,6 +285,18 @@ ExecRepack(ParseState *pstate, RepackStmt *stmt, bool isTopLevel)
 		 * to understand and we don't lose any functionality.
 		 */
 		PreventInTransactionBlock(isTopLevel, "REPACK (CONCURRENTLY)");
+
+		/*
+		 * Also set the PROC_IN_CONCURRENT_REPACK flag.  This makes the
+		 * deadlock checker cause anyone that would conflict with us to error
+		 * out.  It's important to set this flag ahead of actually locking the
+		 * relation; it won't of course affect anyone until we do have a lock
+		 * that others can conflict with.
+		 */
+		LWLockAcquire(ProcArrayLock, LW_EXCLUSIVE);
+		MyProc->statusFlags |= PROC_IN_CONCURRENT_REPACK;
+		ProcGlobal->statusFlags[MyProc->pgxactoff] = MyProc->statusFlags;
+		LWLockRelease(ProcArrayLock);
 	}
 
 	/*
@@ -489,11 +501,8 @@ RepackLockLevel(bool concurrent)
  * If indexOid is InvalidOid, the table will be rewritten in physical order
  * instead of index order.
  *
- * Note that, in the concurrent case, the function releases the lock at some
- * point, in order to get AccessExclusiveLock for the final steps (i.e. to
- * swap the relation files). To make things simpler, the caller should expect
- * OldHeap to be closed on return, regardless CLUOPT_CONCURRENT. (The
- * AccessExclusiveLock is kept till the end of the transaction.)
+ * On return, OldHeap is closed but locked with AccessExclusiveLock - the lock
+ * will be released at end of the transaction.
  *
  * 'cmd' indicates which command is being executed, to be used for error
  * messages.
@@ -1002,10 +1011,8 @@ rebuild_relation(Relation OldHeap, Relation index, bool verbose,
 		 * Note that the worker has to wait for all transactions with XID
 		 * already assigned to finish. If some of those transactions is
 		 * waiting for a lock conflicting with ShareUpdateExclusiveLock on our
-		 * table (e.g.  it runs CREATE INDEX), we can end up in a deadlock.
-		 * Not sure this risk is worth unlocking/locking the table (and its
-		 * clustering index) and checking again if it's still eligible for
-		 * REPACK CONCURRENTLY.
+		 * table (e.g. it runs CREATE INDEX), it should encounter ERROR in the
+		 * deadlock checking code.
 		 */
 		start_repack_decoding_worker(tableOid);
 
@@ -3090,7 +3097,19 @@ rebuild_relation_finish_concurrent(Relation NewHeap, Relation OldHeap,
 		LockRelationOid(OldHeap->rd_rel->reltoastrelid, AccessExclusiveLock);
 
 	/*
-	 * Tuples and pages of the old heap will be gone, but the heap will stay.
+	 * Now that we have all access-exclusive locks on all relations, we no
+	 * longer want other processes to error out when trying to acquire a
+	 * conflicting lock.  Therefore, unset our flag.
+	 */
+	LWLockAcquire(ProcArrayLock, LW_EXCLUSIVE);
+	MyProc->statusFlags &= ~PROC_IN_CONCURRENT_REPACK;
+	ProcGlobal->statusFlags[MyProc->pgxactoff] = MyProc->statusFlags;
+	LWLockRelease(ProcArrayLock);
+
+	/*
+	 * Tuples and pages of the old heap will be gone, but the heap itself will
+	 * stay.  In order for predicate locks to continue to work, convert them
+	 * to relation-level locks.  We do this both for table and indexes.
 	 */
 	TransferPredicateLocksToHeapRelation(OldHeap);
 	foreach_ptr(RelationData, index, indexrels)
@@ -3364,9 +3383,11 @@ start_repack_decoding_worker(Oid relid)
 
 	/*
 	 * The decoding setup must be done before the caller can have XID assigned
-	 * for any reason, otherwise the worker might end up in a deadlock,
-	 * waiting for the caller's transaction to end. Therefore wait here until
-	 * the worker indicates that it has the logical decoding initialized.
+	 * for any reason, otherwise the worker might end up waiting for the
+	 * caller's transaction to end. (Deadlock detector does not consider this
+	 * a conflict because the worker is in the same locking group as the
+	 * backend that launched it.) Therefore wait here until the worker
+	 * indicates that it has the logical decoding initialized.
 	 */
 	ConditionVariablePrepareToSleep(&shared->cv);
 	for (;;)
diff --git a/src/backend/storage/lmgr/deadlock.c b/src/backend/storage/lmgr/deadlock.c
index b8962d875b6..c20ac682b0d 100644
--- a/src/backend/storage/lmgr/deadlock.c
+++ b/src/backend/storage/lmgr/deadlock.c
@@ -620,6 +620,21 @@ FindLockCycleRecurseMember(PGPROC *checkProc,
 						proc->statusFlags & PROC_IS_AUTOVACUUM)
 						blocking_autovacuum_proc = proc;
 
+					/*
+					 * Similarly, if we note that we're blocked by some
+					 * process running REPACK (CONCURRENTLY), just fail.  That
+					 * process is going to upgrade its lock at some point, and
+					 * it would be inappropriate for any other process to
+					 * cause that to fail.
+					 */
+					if (checkProc == MyProc &&
+						proc->statusFlags & PROC_IN_CONCURRENT_REPACK)
+						ereport(ERROR,
+								errcode(ERRCODE_OBJECT_IN_USE),
+								errmsg("could not wait for concurrent REPACK"),
+								errdetail("Process %d waits for REPACK running on process %d",
+										  MyProc->pid, proc->pid));
+
 					/* We're done looking at this proclock */
 					break;
 				}
diff --git a/src/include/storage/proc.h b/src/include/storage/proc.h
index 3e1d1fad5f9..76c6bb44251 100644
--- a/src/include/storage/proc.h
+++ b/src/include/storage/proc.h
@@ -70,10 +70,12 @@ struct XidCache
 #define		PROC_AFFECTS_ALL_HORIZONS	0x20	/* this proc's xmin must be
 												 * included in vacuum horizons
 												 * in all databases */
+#define		PROC_IN_CONCURRENT_REPACK	0x40	/* REPACK (CONCURRENTLY) */
 
-/* flags reset at EOXact */
+/* flags reset at EOXact.  A bit of a misnomer ... */
 #define		PROC_VACUUM_STATE_MASK \
-	(PROC_IN_VACUUM | PROC_IN_SAFE_IC | PROC_VACUUM_FOR_WRAPAROUND)
+	(PROC_IN_VACUUM | PROC_IN_SAFE_IC | PROC_VACUUM_FOR_WRAPAROUND | \
+	 PROC_IN_CONCURRENT_REPACK)
 
 /*
  * Xmin-related flags. Make sure any flags that affect how the process' Xmin
diff --git a/src/test/modules/injection_points/Makefile b/src/test/modules/injection_points/Makefile
index f057d143d1a..13c873969d1 100644
--- a/src/test/modules/injection_points/Makefile
+++ b/src/test/modules/injection_points/Makefile
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ REGRESS_OPTS = --dlpath=$(top_builddir)/src/test/regress
 ISOLATION = basic \
 	    inplace \
 	    repack \
+	    repack_deadlock \
 	    repack_toast \
 	    syscache-update-pruned \
 	    heap_lock_update
diff --git a/src/test/modules/injection_points/expected/repack_deadlock.out b/src/test/modules/injection_points/expected/repack_deadlock.out
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a86e4767536
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/modules/injection_points/expected/repack_deadlock.out
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+Parsed test spec with 2 sessions
+
+starting permutation: wait_before_lock add_column wakeup_before_lock check1
+injection_points_attach
+-----------------------
+                       
+(1 row)
+
+step wait_before_lock: 
+	REPACK (CONCURRENTLY) repack_deadlock USING INDEX repack_deadlock_pkey;
+ <waiting ...>
+step add_column: 
+	alter table repack_deadlock add column noise text;
+ <waiting ...>
+step add_column: <... completed>
+ERROR:  could not wait for concurrent REPACK
+step wakeup_before_lock: 
+	SELECT injection_points_wakeup('repack-concurrently-before-lock');
+
+injection_points_wakeup
+-----------------------
+                       
+(1 row)
+
+step wait_before_lock: <... completed>
+step check1: 
+	INSERT INTO relfilenodes(node)
+	SELECT relfilenode FROM pg_class WHERE relname='repack_deadlock';
+
+	SELECT count(DISTINCT node) FROM relfilenodes;
+
+	SELECT i, j FROM repack_deadlock ORDER BY i, j;
+
+	INSERT INTO data_s1(i, j)
+	SELECT i, j FROM repack_deadlock;
+
+	SELECT count(*)
+	FROM data_s1 d1 FULL JOIN data_s2 d2 USING (i, j)
+	WHERE d1.i ISNULL OR d2.i ISNULL;
+
+count
+-----
+    1
+(1 row)
+
+i|j
+-+-
+1|1
+2|2
+3|3
+4|4
+(4 rows)
+
+count
+-----
+    4
+(1 row)
+
+injection_points_detach
+-----------------------
+                       
+(1 row)
+
diff --git a/src/test/modules/injection_points/meson.build b/src/test/modules/injection_points/meson.build
index fb1418e2caa..ead18818c83 100644
--- a/src/test/modules/injection_points/meson.build
+++ b/src/test/modules/injection_points/meson.build
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ tests += {
       'basic',
       'inplace',
       'repack',
+      'repack_deadlock',
       'repack_toast',
       'syscache-update-pruned',
       'heap_lock_update',
diff --git a/src/test/modules/injection_points/specs/repack_deadlock.spec b/src/test/modules/injection_points/specs/repack_deadlock.spec
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9d23a6588c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/modules/injection_points/specs/repack_deadlock.spec
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+# Test REPACK with a concurrent transaction that would cause a deadlock
+setup
+{
+	CREATE EXTENSION injection_points;
+
+	CREATE TABLE repack_deadlock(i int PRIMARY KEY, j int);
+	INSERT INTO repack_deadlock(i, j) VALUES (1, 1), (2, 2), (3, 3), (4, 4);
+
+	CREATE TABLE relfilenodes(node oid);
+
+	CREATE TABLE data_s1(i int, j int);
+	CREATE TABLE data_s2(i int, j int);
+}
+
+teardown
+{
+	DROP TABLE repack_deadlock;
+	DROP EXTENSION injection_points;
+
+	DROP TABLE relfilenodes;
+	DROP TABLE data_s1;
+	DROP TABLE data_s2;
+}
+
+session s1
+setup
+{
+	SELECT injection_points_set_local();
+	SELECT injection_points_attach('repack-concurrently-before-lock', 'wait');
+}
+# Perform the initial load and wait for s2 to do some data changes.
+step wait_before_lock
+{
+	REPACK (CONCURRENTLY) repack_deadlock USING INDEX repack_deadlock_pkey;
+}
+# Check the table from the perspective of s1.
+#
+# Besides the contents, we also check that relfilenode has changed.
+
+# Have each session write the contents into a table and use FULL JOIN to check
+# if the outputs are identical.
+step check1
+{
+	INSERT INTO relfilenodes(node)
+	SELECT relfilenode FROM pg_class WHERE relname='repack_deadlock';
+
+	SELECT count(DISTINCT node) FROM relfilenodes;
+
+	SELECT i, j FROM repack_deadlock ORDER BY i, j;
+
+	INSERT INTO data_s1(i, j)
+	SELECT i, j FROM repack_deadlock;
+
+	SELECT count(*)
+	FROM data_s1 d1 FULL JOIN data_s2 d2 USING (i, j)
+	WHERE d1.i ISNULL OR d2.i ISNULL;
+}
+teardown
+{
+	SELECT injection_points_detach('repack-concurrently-before-lock');
+}
+
+session s2
+# Change the existing data. UPDATE changes both key and non-key columns. Also
+# update one row twice to test whether tuple version generated by this session
+# can be found.
+step add_column
+{
+	alter table repack_deadlock add column noise text;
+}
+
+step wakeup_before_lock
+{
+	SELECT injection_points_wakeup('repack-concurrently-before-lock');
+}
+
+# Test if data changes introduced while one session is performing REPACK
+# CONCURRENTLY find their way into the table.
+permutation
+	wait_before_lock
+	add_column
+	wakeup_before_lock
+	check1
-- 
2.47.3

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