Fix race condition in our Windows signal emulation.

pg_signal_dispatch_thread() responded to the client (signal sender)
and disconnected the pipe before actually setting the shared variables
that make the signal visible to the backend process's main thread.
In the worst case, it seems, effective delivery of the signal could be
postponed for as long as the machine has any other work to do.

To fix, just move the pg_queue_signal() call so that we do it before
responding to the client.  This essentially makes pgkill() synchronous,
which is a stronger guarantee than we have on Unix.  That may be
overkill, but on the other hand we have not seen comparable timing bugs
on any Unix platform.

While at it, add some comments to this sadly underdocumented code.

Problem diagnosis and fix by Amit Kapila; I just added the comments.

Back-patch to all supported versions, as it appears that this can cause
visible NOTIFY timing oddities on all of them, and there might be
other misbehavior due to slow delivery of other signals.

Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/32745.1575303812@sss.pgh.pa.us

diff --git a/src/backend/port/win32/signal.c b/src/backend/port/win32/signal.c
index 9b5e544febb69c1aef01d9da3076fc9528a3adf7..4d32a6b54df8b3f6819f9b5b7e8c6be1ecec869c 100644 (file)
--- a/src/backend/port/win32/signal.c
+++ b/src/backend/port/win32/signal.c
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ static pqsigfunc pg_signal_array[PG_SIGNAL_COUNT];
 static pqsigfunc pg_signal_defaults[PG_SIGNAL_COUNT];
 
 
-/* Signal handling thread function */
+/* Signal handling thread functions */
 static DWORD WINAPI pg_signal_thread(LPVOID param);
 static BOOL WINAPI pg_console_handler(DWORD dwCtrlType);
 
@@ -208,12 +208,15 @@ pgwin32_create_signal_listener(pid_t pid)
  */
 
 
+/*
+ * Queue a signal for the main thread, by setting the flag bit and event.
+ */
 void
 pg_queue_signal(int signum)
 {
        Assert(pgwin32_signal_event != NULL);
        if (signum >= PG_SIGNAL_COUNT || signum <= 0)
-               return;
+               return;                                 /* ignore any bad signal number */
 
        EnterCriticalSection(&pg_signal_crit_sec);
        pg_signal_queue |= sigmask(signum);
@@ -222,7 +225,11 @@ pg_queue_signal(int signum)
        SetEvent(pgwin32_signal_event);
 }
 
-/* Signal dispatching thread */
+/*
+ * Signal dispatching thread.  This runs after we have received a named
+ * pipe connection from a client (signal sender).   Process the request,
+ * close the pipe, and exit.
+ */
 static DWORD WINAPI
 pg_signal_dispatch_thread(LPVOID param)
 {
@@ -242,13 +249,37 @@ pg_signal_dispatch_thread(LPVOID param)
                CloseHandle(pipe);
                return 0;
        }
+
+       /*
+        * Queue the signal before responding to the client.  In this way, it's
+        * guaranteed that once kill() has returned in the signal sender, the next
+        * CHECK_FOR_INTERRUPTS() in the signal recipient will see the signal.
+        * (This is a stronger guarantee than POSIX makes; maybe we don't need it?
+        * But without it, we've seen timing bugs on Windows that do not manifest
+        * on any known Unix.)
+        */
+       pg_queue_signal(sigNum);
+
+       /*
+        * Write something back to the client, allowing its CallNamedPipe() call
+        * to terminate.
+        */
        WriteFile(pipe, &sigNum, 1, &bytes, NULL);      /* Don't care if it works or
                                                                                                 * not.. */
+
+       /*
+        * We must wait for the client to read the data before we can close the
+        * pipe, else the data will be lost.  (If the WriteFile call failed,
+        * there'll be nothing in the buffer, so this shouldn't block.)
+        */
        FlushFileBuffers(pipe);
+
+       /* This is a formality, since we're about to close the pipe anyway. */
        DisconnectNamedPipe(pipe);
+
+       /* And we're done. */
        CloseHandle(pipe);
 
-       pg_queue_signal(sigNum);
        return 0;
 }
 
@@ -266,6 +297,7 @@ pg_signal_thread(LPVOID param)
                BOOL            fConnected;
                HANDLE          hThread;
 
+               /* Create a new pipe instance if we don't have one. */
                if (pipe == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
                {
                        pipe = CreateNamedPipe(pipename, PIPE_ACCESS_DUPLEX,
@@ -280,6 +312,11 @@ pg_signal_thread(LPVOID param)
                        }
                }
 
+               /*
+                * Wait for a client to connect.  If something connects before we
+                * reach here, we'll get back a "failure" with ERROR_PIPE_CONNECTED,
+                * which is actually a success (way to go, Microsoft).
+                */
                fConnected = ConnectNamedPipe(pipe, NULL) ? TRUE : (GetLastError() == ERROR_PIPE_CONNECTED);
                if (fConnected)
                {