Add rmgrdesc README

In the README, briefly explain what rmgrdesc functions are, and why
they are in a separate directory. Commit c03c2eae0a added some
guidelines on the preferred output format; move that to the README
too.

Reviewed-by: Melanie Plageman, Peter Geoghegan
Discussion: https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/9159daf7-f42d-781b-458f-1b2cf32cb256%40iki.fi
This commit is contained in:
Heikki Linnakangas 2023-10-02 12:18:57 +03:00
parent be8d4cb13c
commit f0bd0b4489
3 changed files with 65 additions and 44 deletions

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@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
src/backend/access/rmgrdesc/README
WAL resource manager description functions
==========================================
For debugging purposes, there is a "description function", or rmgrdesc
function, for each WAL resource manager. The rmgrdesc function parses the WAL
record and prints the contents of the WAL record in a somewhat human-readable
format.
The rmgrdesc functions for all resource managers are gathered in this
directory, because they are also used in the stand-alone pg_waldump program.
They could potentially be used by out-of-tree debugging tools too, although
neither the description functions nor the output format should be considered
part of a stable API
Guidelines for rmgrdesc output format
-------------------------------------
The goal of these guidelines is to avoid gratuitous inconsistencies across
each rmgr, and to allow users to parse desc output strings without too much
difficulty. This is not an API specification or an interchange format.
(Only heapam and nbtree desc routines follow these guidelines at present, in
any case.)
Record descriptions are similar to JSON style key/value objects. However,
there is no explicit "string" type/string escaping. Top-level { } brackets
should be omitted. For example:
snapshotConflictHorizon: 0, flags: 0x03
Record descriptions may contain variable-length arrays. For example:
nunused: 5, unused: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Nested objects are supported via { } brackets. They generally appear inside
variable-length arrays. For example:
ndeleted: 0, nupdated: 1, deleted: [], updated: [{ off: 45, nptids: 1, ptids: [0] }]
Try to output things in an order that faithfully represents the order of
fields from the underlying physical WAL record struct. Key names should be
unique (at the same nesting level) to make parsing easy. It's a good idea if
the number of items in the array appears before the array.
It's okay for individual WAL record types to invent their own conventions.
For example, Heap2's PRUNE record descriptions use a custom array format for
the record's "redirected" field:
... redirected: [1->4, 5->9], dead: [10, 11], unused: [3, 7, 8]
Arguably the desc routine should be using object notation for this instead.
However, there is value in using a custom format when it conveys useful
information about the underlying physical data structures.
This ad-hoc format has the advantage of being close to the format used for
the "dead" and "unused" arrays (which follow the standard desc convention for
page offset number arrays). It suggests that the "redirected" elements shown
are just pairs of page offset numbers (which is how it really works).
rmgrdesc_utils.c contains some helper functions to print data in this format.

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@ -16,6 +16,10 @@
#include "access/rmgrdesc_utils.h"
#include "storage/off.h"
/*
* Helper function to print an array, in the format described in the
* README.
*/
void
array_desc(StringInfo buf, void *array, size_t elem_size, int count,
void (*elem_desc) (StringInfo buf, void *elem, void *data),

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@ -12,50 +12,6 @@
#ifndef RMGRDESC_UTILS_H_
#define RMGRDESC_UTILS_H_
/*
* Guidelines for rmgrdesc routine authors:
*
* The goal of these guidelines is to avoid gratuitous inconsistencies across
* each rmgr, and to allow users to parse desc output strings without too much
* difficulty. This is not an API specification or an interchange format.
* (Only heapam and nbtree desc routines follow these guidelines at present,
* in any case.)
*
* Record descriptions are similar to JSON style key/value objects. However,
* there is no explicit "string" type/string escaping. Top-level { } brackets
* should be omitted. For example:
*
* snapshotConflictHorizon: 0, flags: 0x03
*
* Record descriptions may contain variable-length arrays. For example:
*
* nunused: 5, unused: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
*
* Nested objects are supported via { } brackets. They generally appear
* inside variable-length arrays. For example:
*
* ndeleted: 0, nupdated: 1, deleted: [], updated: [{ off: 45, nptids: 1, ptids: [0] }]
*
* Try to output things in an order that faithfully represents the order of
* fields from the underlying physical WAL record struct. Key names should be
* unique (at the same nesting level) to make parsing easy. It's a good idea
* if the number of items in the array appears before the array.
*
* It's okay for individual WAL record types to invent their own conventions.
* For example, Heap2's PRUNE record descriptions use a custom array format
* for the record's "redirected" field:
*
* ... redirected: [1->4, 5->9], dead: [10, 11], unused: [3, 7, 8]
*
* Arguably the desc routine should be using object notation for this instead.
* However, there is value in using a custom format when it conveys useful
* information about the underlying physical data structures.
*
* This ad-hoc format has the advantage of being close to the format used for
* the "dead" and "unused" arrays (which follow the standard desc convention
* for page offset number arrays). It suggests that the "redirected" elements
* shown are just pairs of page offset numbers (which is how it really works).
*/
extern void array_desc(StringInfo buf, void *array, size_t elem_size, int count,
void (*elem_desc) (StringInfo buf, void *elem, void *data),
void *data);