Justify nbtree page split locking in code comment.
Delaying unlocking the right child page until after the point that the left child's parent page has been refound is no longer truly necessary. Commit 40dae7ec made nbtree tolerant of interrupted page splits. VACUUM was taught to avoid deleting a page that happens to be the right half of an incomplete split. As long as page splits don't unlock the left child page until the end of the second/final phase, it should be safe to unlock the right child page earlier (at the end of the first phase). It probably isn't actually useful to release the right child's lock earlier like this (it probably won't improve performance). Even still, pointing out that it ought to be safe to do so should make it easier to understand the overall design.
Showing
Please register or sign in to comment