Re: Postgres 8.3.5 - ECPG and the use of descriptors and cursors in multi-threaded programs

From: Leif Jensen <leif(at)crysberg(dot)dk>
To: Bosco Rama <postgres(at)boscorama(dot)com>
Cc: pgsql-general <pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Postgres 8.3.5 - ECPG and the use of descriptors and cursors in multi-threaded programs
Date: 2011-05-25 12:02:19
Message-ID: 8264939.3041.1306324939031.JavaMail.root@quick
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Hello,

Thank you for the suggestion, seems the way to go. I have implemented this using both variable descriptor and prepared statement (execquery) in my program and it works nicely, except in one specific situation.

What I didn't mention previously is that we are sometimes using 2 connections in the same thread: 1 for reading some tables (doing SELECT), and 1 for writing other tables (doing INSERTs/UPDATEs) for each record from the first, after some complex operations on the data.

In this case when I deallocate the execquery (and descriptor) I get an error from the ecpg lib saying: -230:26000 invalid statement name

Debugging into the ecpglib, I see that when 'get_connection()' is called (from ECPGdeallocate()) with NULL as parameter, it returns the wrong connection and then uses this and the query name in a call to 'find_prepared_statement()' which of course doesn't find any because of the mismatch of name and connection, hence the error message.

Is it really not possible to use 2 separate connection within 1 thread at the same time ? or is it an error in the ecpg library ?

Please help,

Leif

----- "Bosco Rama" <postgres(at)boscorama(dot)com> wrote:

> Leif Jensen wrote:
> >
> > This seems to be working most of the time, but looking at the
> generated C
> > code from the ecpg compiler and the associated library functions, we
> are
> > not sure whether we should put mutex locks around the 'select' part
> to
> > avoid several threads are using "the same" execdesc at the same
> time.
> >
> > We have made sure that each thread uses their own and only their
> own
> > database connection, but are unsure whether the ecpg library
> functions is
> > able to handle multiple use of the statical name "execdesc" ?
>
> You are most probably trashing memory by using the same descriptor
> name in
> multiple threads. However, given that you have already spent the
> effort to
> have the connections 'thread-dedicated' I think that rather than
> creating a
> critical path through an area that is intentionally supposed to be
> mutli-
> hreaded, I'd be inclined to use the connection name (or some
> derivation of
> it) as the name of the descriptor. I haven't used descriptors in ecpg
> so I
> don't know if the syntax works, but you could try:
>
> exec sql char *dname = _thisDbConn; // Or some derivation
>
> EXEC SQL AT :_thisDbConn ALLOCATE DESCRIPTOR :dname;
> ...
> EXEC SQL AT :_thisDbConn FETCH IN execcurs INTO SQL DESCRIPTOR
> :dname;
> ...
> EXEC SQL DEALLOCATE DESCRIPTOR :dname;
>
>
> Just a thought.
>
> Bosco.

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