Pass InitPlan values to workers via Gather (Merge).

If a PARAM_EXEC parameter is used below a Gather (Merge) but the InitPlan
that computes it is attached to or above the Gather (Merge), force the
value to be computed before starting parallelism and pass it down to all
workers.  This allows us to use parallelism in cases where it previously
would have had to be rejected as unsafe.  We do - in this case - lose the
optimization that the value is only computed if it's actually used.  An
alternative strategy would be to have the first worker that needs the value
compute it, but one downside of that approach is that we'd then need to
select a parallel-safe path to compute the parameter value; it couldn't for
example contain a Gather (Merge) node.  At some point in the future, we
might want to consider both approaches.

Independent of that consideration, there is a great deal more work that
could be done to make more kinds of PARAM_EXEC parameters parallel-safe.
This infrastructure could be used to allow a Gather (Merge) on the inner
side of a nested loop (although that's not a very appealing plan) and
cases where the InitPlan is attached below the Gather (Merge) could be
addressed as well using various techniques.  But this is a good start.

Amit Kapila, reviewed and revised by me.  Reviewing and testing from
Kuntal Ghosh, Haribabu Kommi, and Tushar Ahuja.

Discussion: http://postgr.es/m/CAA4eK1LV0Y1AUV4cUCdC+sYOx0Z0-8NAJ2Pd9=UKsbQ5Sr7+JQ@mail.gmail.com

2 files changed, 52 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/select_parallel.out b/src/test/regress/expected/select_parallel.out
index 06aeddd8055..d1d5b228ce0 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/select_parallel.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/select_parallel.out
@@ -202,6 +202,41 @@ explain (costs off)
 (4 rows)
 
 alter table tenk2 reset (parallel_workers);
+-- test parallel plan for a query containing initplan.
+set enable_indexscan = off;
+set enable_indexonlyscan = off;
+set enable_bitmapscan = off;
+alter table tenk2 set (parallel_workers = 2);
+explain (costs off)
+	select count(*) from tenk1
+        where tenk1.unique1 = (Select max(tenk2.unique1) from tenk2);
+                      QUERY PLAN                      
+------------------------------------------------------
+ Aggregate
+   InitPlan 1 (returns $2)
+     ->  Finalize Aggregate
+           ->  Gather
+                 Workers Planned: 2
+                 ->  Partial Aggregate
+                       ->  Parallel Seq Scan on tenk2
+   ->  Gather
+         Workers Planned: 4
+         Params Evaluated: $2
+         ->  Parallel Seq Scan on tenk1
+               Filter: (unique1 = $2)
+(12 rows)
+
+select count(*) from tenk1
+    where tenk1.unique1 = (Select max(tenk2.unique1) from tenk2);
+ count 
+-------
+     1
+(1 row)
+
+reset enable_indexscan;
+reset enable_indexonlyscan;
+reset enable_bitmapscan;
+alter table tenk2 reset (parallel_workers);
 -- test parallel index scans.
 set enable_seqscan to off;
 set enable_bitmapscan to off;
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/select_parallel.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/select_parallel.sql
index b701b35408e..bb4e34adbe0 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/select_parallel.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/select_parallel.sql
@@ -74,6 +74,23 @@ explain (costs off)
 	(select ten from tenk2);
 alter table tenk2 reset (parallel_workers);
 
+-- test parallel plan for a query containing initplan.
+set enable_indexscan = off;
+set enable_indexonlyscan = off;
+set enable_bitmapscan = off;
+alter table tenk2 set (parallel_workers = 2);
+
+explain (costs off)
+	select count(*) from tenk1
+        where tenk1.unique1 = (Select max(tenk2.unique1) from tenk2);
+select count(*) from tenk1
+    where tenk1.unique1 = (Select max(tenk2.unique1) from tenk2);
+
+reset enable_indexscan;
+reset enable_indexonlyscan;
+reset enable_bitmapscan;
+alter table tenk2 reset (parallel_workers);
+
 -- test parallel index scans.
 set enable_seqscan to off;
 set enable_bitmapscan to off;