|
- <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
- <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>61.5. Index Uniqueness Checks</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.79.1" /><link rel="prev" href="index-locking.html" title="61.4. Index Locking Considerations" /><link rel="next" href="index-cost-estimation.html" title="61.6. Index Cost Estimation Functions" /></head><body><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/transitional" class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">61.5. Index Uniqueness Checks</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="index-locking.html" title="61.4. Index Locking Considerations">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="indexam.html" title="Chapter 61. Index Access Method Interface Definition">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 61. Index Access Method Interface Definition</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 12.4 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="index-cost-estimation.html" title="61.6. Index Cost Estimation Functions">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></hr></div><div class="sect1" id="INDEX-UNIQUE-CHECKS"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">61.5. Index Uniqueness Checks</h2></div></div></div><p>
- <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> enforces SQL uniqueness constraints
- using <em class="firstterm">unique indexes</em>, which are indexes that disallow
- multiple entries with identical keys. An access method that supports this
- feature sets <code class="structfield">amcanunique</code> true.
- (At present, only b-tree supports it.) Columns listed in the
- <code class="literal">INCLUDE</code> clause are not considered when enforcing
- uniqueness.
- </p><p>
- Because of MVCC, it is always necessary to allow duplicate entries to
- exist physically in an index: the entries might refer to successive
- versions of a single logical row. The behavior we actually want to
- enforce is that no MVCC snapshot could include two rows with equal
- index keys. This breaks down into the following cases that must be
- checked when inserting a new row into a unique index:
-
- </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>
- If a conflicting valid row has been deleted by the current transaction,
- it's okay. (In particular, since an UPDATE always deletes the old row
- version before inserting the new version, this will allow an UPDATE on
- a row without changing the key.)
- </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
- If a conflicting row has been inserted by an as-yet-uncommitted
- transaction, the would-be inserter must wait to see if that transaction
- commits. If it rolls back then there is no conflict. If it commits
- without deleting the conflicting row again, there is a uniqueness
- violation. (In practice we just wait for the other transaction to
- end and then redo the visibility check in toto.)
- </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
- Similarly, if a conflicting valid row has been deleted by an
- as-yet-uncommitted transaction, the would-be inserter must wait
- for that transaction to commit or abort, and then repeat the test.
- </p></li></ul></div><p>
- </p><p>
- Furthermore, immediately before reporting a uniqueness violation
- according to the above rules, the access method must recheck the
- liveness of the row being inserted. If it is committed dead then
- no violation should be reported. (This case cannot occur during the
- ordinary scenario of inserting a row that's just been created by
- the current transaction. It can happen during
- <code class="command">CREATE UNIQUE INDEX CONCURRENTLY</code>, however.)
- </p><p>
- We require the index access method to apply these tests itself, which
- means that it must reach into the heap to check the commit status of
- any row that is shown to have a duplicate key according to the index
- contents. This is without a doubt ugly and non-modular, but it saves
- redundant work: if we did a separate probe then the index lookup for
- a conflicting row would be essentially repeated while finding the place to
- insert the new row's index entry. What's more, there is no obvious way
- to avoid race conditions unless the conflict check is an integral part
- of insertion of the new index entry.
- </p><p>
- If the unique constraint is deferrable, there is additional complexity:
- we need to be able to insert an index entry for a new row, but defer any
- uniqueness-violation error until end of statement or even later. To
- avoid unnecessary repeat searches of the index, the index access method
- should do a preliminary uniqueness check during the initial insertion.
- If this shows that there is definitely no conflicting live tuple, we
- are done. Otherwise, we schedule a recheck to occur when it is time to
- enforce the constraint. If, at the time of the recheck, both the inserted
- tuple and some other tuple with the same key are live, then the error
- must be reported. (Note that for this purpose, <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">live</span>”</span> actually
- means <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">any tuple in the index entry's HOT chain is live</span>”</span>.)
- To implement this, the <code class="function">aminsert</code> function is passed a
- <code class="literal">checkUnique</code> parameter having one of the following values:
-
- </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>
- <code class="literal">UNIQUE_CHECK_NO</code> indicates that no uniqueness checking
- should be done (this is not a unique index).
- </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
- <code class="literal">UNIQUE_CHECK_YES</code> indicates that this is a non-deferrable
- unique index, and the uniqueness check must be done immediately, as
- described above.
- </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
- <code class="literal">UNIQUE_CHECK_PARTIAL</code> indicates that the unique
- constraint is deferrable. <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span>
- will use this mode to insert each row's index entry. The access
- method must allow duplicate entries into the index, and report any
- potential duplicates by returning false from <code class="function">aminsert</code>.
- For each row for which false is returned, a deferred recheck will
- be scheduled.
- </p><p>
- The access method must identify any rows which might violate the
- unique constraint, but it is not an error for it to report false
- positives. This allows the check to be done without waiting for other
- transactions to finish; conflicts reported here are not treated as
- errors and will be rechecked later, by which time they may no longer
- be conflicts.
- </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
- <code class="literal">UNIQUE_CHECK_EXISTING</code> indicates that this is a deferred
- recheck of a row that was reported as a potential uniqueness violation.
- Although this is implemented by calling <code class="function">aminsert</code>, the
- access method must <span class="emphasis"><em>not</em></span> insert a new index entry in this
- case. The index entry is already present. Rather, the access method
- must check to see if there is another live index entry. If so, and
- if the target row is also still live, report error.
- </p><p>
- It is recommended that in a <code class="literal">UNIQUE_CHECK_EXISTING</code> call,
- the access method further verify that the target row actually does
- have an existing entry in the index, and report error if not. This
- is a good idea because the index tuple values passed to
- <code class="function">aminsert</code> will have been recomputed. If the index
- definition involves functions that are not really immutable, we
- might be checking the wrong area of the index. Checking that the
- target row is found in the recheck verifies that we are scanning
- for the same tuple values as were used in the original insertion.
- </p></li></ul></div><p>
- </p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="index-locking.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="indexam.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="index-cost-estimation.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">61.4. Index Locking Considerations </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> 61.6. Index Cost Estimation Functions</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
|