Document and clean up gistsplit.c.

Improve comments, rename some variables and functions, slightly simplify
a couple of APIs, in an attempt to make this code readable by people other
than its original author.

Even though this is essentially just cosmetic, back-patch to all active
branches, because otherwise it's going to make back-patching future fixes
in this file very painful.

src/backend/access/gist/gist.c

@@ -1237,18 +1237,12 @@ gistSplit(Relation r,
 	IndexTuple *lvectup,
 			   *rvectup;
 	GistSplitVector v;
-	GistEntryVector *entryvec;
 	int			i;
 	SplitedPageLayout *res = NULL;
 
-	/* generate the item array */
-	entryvec = palloc(GEVHDRSZ + (len + 1) * sizeof(GISTENTRY));
-	entryvec->n = len + 1;
-
 	memset(v.spl_lisnull, TRUE, sizeof(bool) * giststate->tupdesc->natts);
 	memset(v.spl_risnull, TRUE, sizeof(bool) * giststate->tupdesc->natts);
-	gistSplitByKey(r, page, itup, len, giststate,
-				   &v, entryvec, 0);
+	gistSplitByKey(r, page, itup, len, giststate, &v, 0);
 
 	/* form left and right vector */
 	lvectup = (IndexTuple *) palloc(sizeof(IndexTuple) * (len + 1));

src/include/access/gist.h

@@ -90,11 +90,30 @@ typedef GISTPageOpaqueData *GISTPageOpaque;
 
 /*
  * This is the Split Vector to be returned by the PickSplit method.
- * PickSplit should check spl_(r|l)datum_exists. If it is 'true',
- * that corresponding spl_(r|l)datum already defined and
- * PickSplit should use that value. PickSplit should always set
- * spl_(r|l)datum_exists to false: GiST will check value to
- * control supporting this feature by PickSplit...
+ * PickSplit should fill the indexes of tuples to go to the left side into
+ * spl_left[], and those to go to the right into spl_right[] (note the method
+ * is responsible for palloc'ing both of these arrays!).  The tuple counts
+ * go into spl_nleft/spl_nright, and spl_ldatum/spl_rdatum must be set to
+ * the union keys for each side.
+ *
+ * If spl_ldatum_exists and spl_rdatum_exists are true, then we are performing
+ * a "secondary split" using a non-first index column.  In this case some
+ * decisions have already been made about a page split, and the set of tuples
+ * being passed to PickSplit is just the tuples about which we are undecided.
+ * spl_ldatum/spl_rdatum then contain the union keys for the tuples already
+ * chosen to go left or right.  Ideally the PickSplit method should take those
+ * keys into account while deciding what to do with the remaining tuples, ie
+ * it should try to "build out" from those unions so as to minimally expand
+ * them.  If it does so, it should union the given tuples' keys into the
+ * existing spl_ldatum/spl_rdatum values rather than just setting those values
+ * from scratch, and then set spl_ldatum_exists/spl_rdatum_exists to false to
+ * show it has done this.
+ *
+ * If the PickSplit method fails to clear spl_ldatum_exists/spl_rdatum_exists,
+ * the core GiST code will make its own decision about how to merge the
+ * secondary-split results with the previously-chosen tuples, and will then
+ * recompute the union keys from scratch.  This is a workable though often not
+ * optimal approach.
  */
 typedef struct GIST_SPLITVEC
 {

src/include/access/gist_private.h

@@ -248,20 +248,21 @@ typedef struct GISTInsertStack
 	struct GISTInsertStack *parent;
 } GISTInsertStack;
 
+/* Working state and results for multi-column split logic in gistsplit.c */
 typedef struct GistSplitVector
 {
-	GIST_SPLITVEC splitVector;	/* to/from PickSplit method */
+	GIST_SPLITVEC splitVector;	/* passed to/from user PickSplit method */
 
 	Datum		spl_lattr[INDEX_MAX_KEYS];		/* Union of subkeys in
-												 * spl_left */
+												 * splitVector.spl_left */
 	bool		spl_lisnull[INDEX_MAX_KEYS];
 
 	Datum		spl_rattr[INDEX_MAX_KEYS];		/* Union of subkeys in
-												 * spl_right */
+												 * splitVector.spl_right */
 	bool		spl_risnull[INDEX_MAX_KEYS];
 
-	bool	   *spl_equiv;		/* equivalent tuples which can be freely
-								 * distributed between left and right pages */
+	bool	   *spl_dontcare;	/* flags tuples which could go to either side
+								 * of the split for zero penalty */
 } GistSplitVector;
 
 typedef struct
@@ -520,7 +521,7 @@ extern Datum gistvacuumcleanup(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS);
 /* gistsplit.c */
 extern void gistSplitByKey(Relation r, Page page, IndexTuple *itup,
 			   int len, GISTSTATE *giststate,
-			   GistSplitVector *v, GistEntryVector *entryvec,
+			   GistSplitVector *v,
 			   int attno);
 
 /* gistbuild.c */