postgres/src/backend/nodes
Tom Lane db9f0e1d9a Postpone creation of pathkeys lists to fix bug #8049.
This patch gets rid of the concept of, and infrastructure for,
non-canonical PathKeys; we now only ever create canonical pathkey lists.

The need for non-canonical pathkeys came from the desire to have
grouping_planner initialize query_pathkeys and related pathkey lists before
calling query_planner.  However, since query_planner didn't actually *do*
anything with those lists before they'd been made canonical, we can get rid
of the whole mess by just not creating the lists at all until the point
where we formerly canonicalized them.

There are several ways in which we could implement that without making
query_planner itself deal with grouping/sorting features (which are
supposed to be the province of grouping_planner).  I chose to add a
callback function to query_planner's API; other alternatives would have
required adding more fields to PlannerInfo, which while not bad in itself
would create an ABI break for planner-related plugins in the 9.2 release
series.  This still breaks ABI for anything that calls query_planner
directly, but it seems somewhat unlikely that there are any such plugins.

I had originally conceived of this change as merely a step on the way to
fixing bug #8049 from Teun Hoogendoorn; but it turns out that this fixes
that bug all by itself, as per the added regression test.  The reason is
that now get_eclass_for_sort_expr is adding the ORDER BY expression at the
end of EquivalenceClass creation not the start, and so anything that is in
a multi-member EquivalenceClass has already been created with correct
em_nullable_relids.  I am suspicious that there are related scenarios in
which we still need to teach get_eclass_for_sort_expr to compute correct
nullable_relids, but am not eager to risk destabilizing either 9.2 or 9.3
to fix bugs that are only hypothetical.  So for the moment, do this and
stop here.

Back-patch to 9.2 but not to earlier branches, since they don't exhibit
this bug for lack of join-clause-movement logic that depends on
em_nullable_relids being correct.  (We might have to revisit that choice
if any related bugs turn up.)  In 9.2, don't change the signature of
make_pathkeys_for_sortclauses nor remove canonicalize_pathkeys, so as
not to risk more plugin breakage than we have to.
2013-04-29 14:50:03 -04:00
..
bitmapset.c Update copyrights for 2013 2013-01-01 17:15:01 -05:00
copyfuncs.c Incidental cleanup of matviews code. 2013-04-27 17:48:57 -04:00
equalfuncs.c Postpone creation of pathkeys lists to fix bug #8049. 2013-04-29 14:50:03 -04:00
list.c Update copyrights for 2013 2013-01-01 17:15:01 -05:00
Makefile Remove cvs keywords from all files. 2010-09-20 22:08:53 +02:00
makefuncs.c Add infrastructure for storing a VARIADIC ANY function's VARIADIC flag. 2013-01-21 20:26:15 -05:00
nodeFuncs.c Clean up the mess around EXPLAIN and materialized views. 2013-04-12 19:25:31 -04:00
nodes.c Update copyrights for 2013 2013-01-01 17:15:01 -05:00
outfuncs.c Incidental cleanup of matviews code. 2013-04-27 17:48:57 -04:00
params.c Update copyrights for 2013 2013-01-01 17:15:01 -05:00
print.c Update copyrights for 2013 2013-01-01 17:15:01 -05:00
read.c Update copyrights for 2013 2013-01-01 17:15:01 -05:00
readfuncs.c Incidental cleanup of matviews code. 2013-04-27 17:48:57 -04:00
README Remove useless whitespace at end of lines 2010-11-23 22:34:55 +02:00
tidbitmap.c Update copyrights for 2013 2013-01-01 17:15:01 -05:00
value.c Update copyrights for 2013 2013-01-01 17:15:01 -05:00

src/backend/nodes/README

Node Structures
===============

Andrew Yu (11/94)

Introduction
------------

The current node structures are plain old C structures. "Inheritance" is
achieved by convention. No additional functions will be generated. Functions
that manipulate node structures reside in this directory.


FILES IN THIS DIRECTORY (src/backend/nodes/)

    General-purpose node manipulation functions:
	copyfuncs.c	- copy a node tree
	equalfuncs.c	- compare two node trees
	outfuncs.c	- convert a node tree to text representation
	readfuncs.c	- convert text representation back to a node tree
	makefuncs.c	- creator functions for some common node types
	nodeFuncs.c	- some other general-purpose manipulation functions

    Specialized manipulation functions:
	bitmapset.c	- Bitmapset support
	list.c		- generic list support
	params.c	- Param support
	tidbitmap.c	- TIDBitmap support
	value.c		- support for Value nodes

FILES IN src/include/nodes/

    Node definitions:
	nodes.h		- define node tags (NodeTag)
	primnodes.h	- primitive nodes
	parsenodes.h	- parse tree nodes
	plannodes.h	- plan tree nodes
	relation.h	- planner internal nodes
	execnodes.h	- executor nodes
	memnodes.h	- memory nodes
	pg_list.h	- generic list


Steps to Add a Node
-------------------

Suppose you wanna define a node Foo:

1. Add a tag (T_Foo) to the enum NodeTag in nodes.h.  (If you insert the
   tag in a way that moves the numbers associated with existing tags,
   you'll need to recompile the whole tree after doing this.  It doesn't
   force initdb though, because the numbers never go to disk.)
2. Add the structure definition to the appropriate include/nodes/???.h file.
   If you intend to inherit from, say a Plan node, put Plan as the first field
   of your struct definition.
3. If you intend to use copyObject, equal, nodeToString or stringToNode,
   add an appropriate function to copyfuncs.c, equalfuncs.c, outfuncs.c
   and readfuncs.c accordingly.  (Except for frequently used nodes, don't
   bother writing a creator function in makefuncs.c)  The header comments
   in those files give general rules for whether you need to add support.
4. Add cases to the functions in nodeFuncs.c as needed.  There are many
   other places you'll probably also need to teach about your new node
   type.  Best bet is to grep for references to one or two similar existing
   node types to find all the places to touch.


Historical Note
---------------

Prior to the current simple C structure definitions, the Node structures
used a pseudo-inheritance system which automatically generated creator and
accessor functions. Since every node inherited from LispValue, the whole thing
was a mess. Here's a little anecdote:

    LispValue definition -- class used to support lisp structures
    in C.  This is here because we did not want to totally rewrite
    planner and executor code which depended on lisp structures when
    we ported postgres V1 from lisp to C. -cim 4/23/90