checkpointer: Request checkpoint via latch instead of signal

The motivation for this change is that a future commit will use SIGINT for
another purpose (postmaster requesting WAL access to be shut down) and that
there no other signals that we could readily use (see code comment for the
reason why SIGTERM shouldn't be used). But it's also a tad nicer / more
efficient to use SetLatch(), as it avoids sending signals when checkpointer
already is busy.

Reviewed-by: Bertrand Drouvot <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Nazir Bilal Yavuz <[email protected]>
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/kgng5nrvnlv335evmsuvpnh354rw7qyazl73kdysev2cr2v5zu@m3cfzxicm5kp

Author: anarazel

src/backend/postmaster/checkpointer.c

@@ -159,9 +159,6 @@ static bool ImmediateCheckpointRequested(void);
 static bool CompactCheckpointerRequestQueue(void);
 static void UpdateSharedMemoryConfig(void);
 
-/* Signal handlers */
-static void ReqCheckpointHandler(SIGNAL_ARGS);
-
 
 /*
  * Main entry point for checkpointer process
@@ -191,7 +188,7 @@ CheckpointerMain(char *startup_data, size_t startup_data_len)
 	 * tell us it's okay to shut down (via SIGUSR2).
 	 */
 	pqsignal(SIGHUP, SignalHandlerForConfigReload);
-	pqsignal(SIGINT, ReqCheckpointHandler); /* request checkpoint */
+	pqsignal(SIGINT, SIG_IGN);
 	pqsignal(SIGTERM, SIG_IGN); /* ignore SIGTERM */
 	/* SIGQUIT handler was already set up by InitPostmasterChild */
 	pqsignal(SIGALRM, SIG_IGN);
@@ -860,23 +857,6 @@ IsCheckpointOnSchedule(double progress)
 }
 
 
-/* --------------------------------
- *		signal handler routines
- * --------------------------------
- */
-
-/* SIGINT: set flag to run a normal checkpoint right away */
-static void
-ReqCheckpointHandler(SIGNAL_ARGS)
-{
-	/*
-	 * The signaling process should have set ckpt_flags nonzero, so all we
-	 * need do is ensure that our main loop gets kicked out of any wait.
-	 */
-	SetLatch(MyLatch);
-}
-
-
 /* --------------------------------
  *		communication with backends
  * --------------------------------
@@ -990,38 +970,36 @@ RequestCheckpoint(int flags)
 	SpinLockRelease(&CheckpointerShmem->ckpt_lck);
 
 	/*
-	 * Send signal to request checkpoint.  It's possible that the checkpointer
-	 * hasn't started yet, or is in process of restarting, so we will retry a
-	 * few times if needed.  (Actually, more than a few times, since on slow
-	 * or overloaded buildfarm machines, it's been observed that the
-	 * checkpointer can take several seconds to start.)  However, if not told
-	 * to wait for the checkpoint to occur, we consider failure to send the
-	 * signal to be nonfatal and merely LOG it.  The checkpointer should see
-	 * the request when it does start, with or without getting a signal.
+	 * Set checkpointer's latch to request checkpoint.  It's possible that the
+	 * checkpointer hasn't started yet, so we will retry a few times if
+	 * needed.  (Actually, more than a few times, since on slow or overloaded
+	 * buildfarm machines, it's been observed that the checkpointer can take
+	 * several seconds to start.)  However, if not told to wait for the
+	 * checkpoint to occur, we consider failure to set the latch to be
+	 * nonfatal and merely LOG it.  The checkpointer should see the request
+	 * when it does start, with or without the SetLatch().
 	 */
 #define MAX_SIGNAL_TRIES 600	/* max wait 60.0 sec */
 	for (ntries = 0;; ntries++)
 	{
-		if (CheckpointerShmem->checkpointer_pid == 0)
+		volatile PROC_HDR *procglobal = ProcGlobal;
+		ProcNumber	checkpointerProc = procglobal->checkpointerProc;
+
+		if (checkpointerProc == INVALID_PROC_NUMBER)
 		{
 			if (ntries >= MAX_SIGNAL_TRIES || !(flags & CHECKPOINT_WAIT))
 			{
 				elog((flags & CHECKPOINT_WAIT) ? ERROR : LOG,
-					 "could not signal for checkpoint: checkpointer is not running");
+					 "could not notify checkpoint: checkpointer is not running");
 				break;
 			}
 		}
-		else if (kill(CheckpointerShmem->checkpointer_pid, SIGINT) != 0)
+		else
 		{
-			if (ntries >= MAX_SIGNAL_TRIES || !(flags & CHECKPOINT_WAIT))
-			{
-				elog((flags & CHECKPOINT_WAIT) ? ERROR : LOG,
-					 "could not signal for checkpoint: %m");
-				break;
-			}
+			SetLatch(&GetPGProcByNumber(checkpointerProc)->procLatch);
+			/* notified successfully */
+			break;
 		}
-		else
-			break;				/* signal sent successfully */
 
 		CHECK_FOR_INTERRUPTS();
 		pg_usleep(100000L);		/* wait 0.1 sec, then retry */