</H1>
<H2 ALIGN=CENTER>
by Bruce Momjian
-</H2 ALIGN=CENTER>
+</H2>
<P>
<P>
+<HR>
<EM>Click on any of the section headings to see the source code for that section.
</EM>
<P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="bootstrap">
-<A HREF="../../backend/bootstrap">bootstrap</A></A>
+<A NAME="bootstrap"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/bootstrap">bootstrap</A>
- creates initial template database via initdb
</H2>
<P>
special syntax used only by the bootstrap procedure.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="main">
-<A HREF="../../backend/main">main</A></A>
+<A NAME="main"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/main">main</A>
- passes control to postmaster or postgres
</H2>
<P>
control to the postmaster or postgres backend code.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="postmaster">
-<A HREF="../../backend/postmaster">postmaster</A></A>
+<A NAME="postmaster"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/postmaster">postmaster</A>
- controls postgres server startup/termination
</H2>
<P>
and the connection is passed to it.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="libpq">
-<A HREF="../../backend/libpq">libpq</A></A>
+<A NAME="libpq"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/libpq">libpq</A>
- backend libpq library routines
</H2>
<P>
This handles communication to the client processes.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="tcop">
-<A HREF="../../backend/tcop">tcop</A></A>
+<A NAME="tcop"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/tcop">tcop</A>
- traffic cop, dispatches request to proper module
</H2>
<P>
<I>/commands</I> functions.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="parser">
-<A HREF="../../backend/parser">parser</A></A>
+<A NAME="parser"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/parser">parser</A>
- converts SQL query to query tree
</H2>
<P>
<I>Nodes</I> to be handled by the optimizer and executor.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="optimizer">
-<A HREF="../../backend/optimizer">optimizer</A></A>
+<A NAME="optimizer"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/optimizer">optimizer</A>
- creates path and plan
</H2>
<P>
This uses the parser output to generate an optimal plan for the
executor.
</P>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="optimizer/path">
-<A HREF="../../backend/optimizer/path">optimizer/path</A></A>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="optimizer/path"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/optimizer/path">optimizer/path</A>
- creates path from parser output
-</H4>
+</H3>
<P>
This takes the parser query output, and generates all possible methods of
executing the request.
and optimizer table statistics to evaluate each possible execution
method, and assigns a cost to each.
</P>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="optimizer/geqo">
-<A HREF="../../backend/optimizer/geqo">optimizer/geqo</A></A>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="optimizer/geqo"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/optimizer/geqo">optimizer/geqo</A>
- genetic query optimizer
-</H4>
+</H3>
<P>
<I>optimizer/path</I> evaluates all possible ways to join the requested tables.
When the number of tables becomes great, the number of tests made
tables, it is faster.
There is an option to control when this feature is used.
</P>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="optimizer/plan">
-<A HREF="../../backend/optimizer/plan">optimizer/plan</A></A>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="optimizer/plan"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/optimizer/plan">optimizer/plan</A>
- optimizes path output
-</H4>
+</H3>
<P>
This takes the <I>optimizer/path</I> output, chooses the path with the
least cost, and creates a plan for the executor.
</P>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="optimizer/prep">
-<A HREF="../../backend/optimizer/prep">optimizer/prep</A></A>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="optimizer/prep"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/optimizer/prep">optimizer/prep</A>
- handle special plan cases
-</H4>
+</H3>
<P>
This does special plan processing.
</P>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="optimizer/util">
-<A HREF="../../backend/optimizer/util">optimizer/util</A></A>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="optimizer/util"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/optimizer/util">optimizer/util</A>
- optimizer support routines
-</H4>
+</H3>
<P>
This contains support routines used by other parts of the optimizer.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="executor">
-<A HREF="../../backend/executor">executor</A></A>
+<A NAME="executor"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/executor">executor</A>
- executes complex node plans from optimizer
</H2>
<P>
and uniqueness.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="commands">
-<A HREF="../../backend/commands">commands</A></A>
+<A NAME="commands"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/commands">commands</A>
- commands that do not require the executor
</H2>
<P>
in the catalog directory to do the actual work.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="catalog">
-<A HREF="../../backend/catalog">catalog</A></A>
+<A NAME="catalog"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/catalog">catalog</A>
- system catalog manipulation
</H2>
<P>
that pre-format user requests into a predefined format.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="storage">
-<A HREF="../../backend/storage">storage</A></A>
+<A NAME="storage"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/storage">storage</A>
- manages various storage systems
</H2>
<P>
These allow uniform resource access by the backend.
<BR>
<BR>
-<A NAME="storage/buffer">
-<A HREF="../../backend/storage/buffer">storage/buffer</A></A>
+<A NAME="storage/buffer"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/storage/buffer">storage/buffer</A>
- shared buffer pool manager
<BR>
-<A NAME="storage/file">
-<A HREF="../../backend/storage/file">storage/file</A></A>
+<A NAME="storage/file"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/storage/file">storage/file</A>
- file manager
<BR>
-<A NAME="storage/ipc">
-<A HREF="../../backend/storage/ipc">storage/ipc</A></A>
+<A NAME="storage/ipc"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/storage/ipc">storage/ipc</A>
- semaphores and shared memory
<BR>
-<A NAME="storage/large_object">
-<A HREF="../../backend/storage/large_object">storage/large_object</A></A>
+<A NAME="storage/large_object"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/storage/large_object">storage/large_object</A>
- large objects
<BR>
-<A NAME="storage/lmgr">
-<A HREF="../../backend/storage/lmgr">storage/lmgr</A></A>
+<A NAME="storage/lmgr"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/storage/lmgr">storage/lmgr</A>
- lock manager
<BR>
-<A NAME="storage/page">
-<A HREF="../../backend/storage/page">storage/page</A></A>
+<A NAME="storage/page"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/storage/page">storage/page</A>
- page manager
<BR>
-<A NAME="storage/smgr">
-<A HREF="../../backend/storage/smgr">storage/smgr</A></A>
+<A NAME="storage/smgr"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/storage/smgr">storage/smgr</A>
- storage/disk manager
<BR>
<BR>
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="access">
-<A HREF="../../backend/access">access</A></A>
+<A NAME="access"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/access">access</A>
- various data access methods
</H2>
<P>
transactions.
<BR>
<BR>
-<A NAME="access/common">
-<A HREF="../../backend/access/common">access/common</A></A>
+<A NAME="access/common"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/access/common">access/common</A>
- common access routines
<BR>
-<A NAME="access/gist">
-<A HREF="../../backend/access/gist">access/gist</A></A>
+<A NAME="access/gist"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/access/gist">access/gist</A>
- easy-to-define access method system
<BR>
-<A NAME="access/hash">
-<A HREF="../../backend/access/hash">access/hash</A></A>
+<A NAME="access/hash"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/access/hash">access/hash</A>
- hash
<BR>
-<A NAME="access/heap">
-<A HREF="../../backend/access/heap">access/heap</A></A>
+<A NAME="access/heap"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/access/heap">access/heap</A>
- heap is use to store data rows
<BR>
-<A NAME="access/index">
-<A HREF="../../backend/access/index">access/index</A></A>
+<A NAME="access/index"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/access/index">access/index</A>
- used by all index types
<BR>
-<A NAME="access/nbtree">
-<A HREF="../../backend/access/nbtree">access/nbtree</A></A>
+<A NAME="access/nbtree"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/access/nbtree">access/nbtree</A>
- Lehman and Yao's btree management algorithm
<BR>
-<A NAME="access/rtree">
-<A HREF="../../backend/access/rtree">access/rtree</A></A>
+<A NAME="access/rtree"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/access/rtree">access/rtree</A>
- used for indexing of 2-dimensional data
<BR>
-<A NAME="access/transam">
-<A HREF="../../backend/access/transam">access/transam</A></A>
+<A NAME="access/transam"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/access/transam">access/transam</A>
- transaction manager (BEGIN/ABORT/COMMIT)
<BR>
<BR>
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="nodes">
-<A HREF="../../backend/nodes">nodes</A></A>
+<A NAME="nodes"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/nodes">nodes</A>
- creation/manipulation of nodes and lists
</H2>
<P>
store requests and data.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="utils">
-<A HREF="../../backend/utils">utils</A></A>
+<A NAME="utils"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/utils">utils</A>
- support routines
</H2>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="utils/adt">
-<A HREF="../../backend/utils/adt">utils/adt</A></A>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="utils/adt"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/utils/adt">utils/adt</A>
- built-in data type routines
-</H4>
+</H3>
<P>
This contains all the PostgreSQL builtin data types.
</P>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="utils/cache">
-<A HREF="../../backend/utils/cache">utils/cache</A></A>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="utils/cache"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/utils/cache">utils/cache</A>
- system/relation/function cache routines
-</H4>
+</H3>
<P>
PostgreSQL supports arbitrary data types, so no data types are hard-coded
into the core backend routines.
This last cache maintains information about all recently-accessed
tables, not just system ones.
</P>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="utils/error">
-<A HREF="../../backend/utils/error">utils/error</A></A>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="utils/error"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/utils/error">utils/error</A>
- error reporting routines
-</H4>
+</H3>
<P>
Reports backend errors to the front end.
</P>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="utils/fmgr">
-<A HREF="../../backend/utils/fmgr">utils/fmgr</A></A>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="utils/fmgr"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/utils/fmgr">utils/fmgr</A>
- function manager
-</H4>
+</H3>
<P>
This handles the calling of dynamically-loaded functions, and the calling
of functions defined in the system tables.
</P>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="utils/hash">
-<A HREF="../../backend/utils/hash">utils/hash</A></A>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="utils/hash"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/utils/hash">utils/hash</A>
- hash routines for internal algorithms
-</H4>
+</H3>
<P>
These hash routines are used by the cache and memory-manager routines to
do quick lookups of dynamic data storage structures maintained by the
backend.
</P>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="utils/init">
-<A HREF="../../backend/utils/init">utils/init</A></A>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="utils/init"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/utils/init">utils/init</A>
- various initialization stuff
-</H4>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="utils/misc">
-<A HREF="../../backend/utils/misc">utils/misc</A></A>
+</H3>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="utils/misc"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/utils/misc">utils/misc</A>
- miscellaneous stuff
-</H4>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="utils/mmgr">
-<A HREF="../../backend/utils/mmgr">utils/mmgr</A></A>
+</H3>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="utils/mmgr"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/utils/mmgr">utils/mmgr</A>
- memory manager(process-local memory)
-</H4>
+</H3>
<P>
When PostgreSQL allocates memory, it does so in an explicit context.
Contexts can be statement-specific, transaction-specific, or
By doing this, the backend can easily free memory once a statement or
transaction completes.
</P>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="utils/sort">
-<A HREF="../../backend/utils/sort">utils/sort</A></A>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="utils/sort"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/utils/sort">utils/sort</A>
- sort routines for internal algorithms
-</H4>
+</H3>
<P>
When statement output must be sorted as part of a backend operation,
this code sorts the tuples, either in memory or using disk files.
</P>
-<H4>
-<A NAME="utils/time">
-<A HREF="../../backend/utils/time">utils/time</A></A>
+<H3>
+<A NAME="utils/time"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/utils/time">utils/time</A>
- transaction time qualification routines
-</H4>
+</H3>
<P>
These routines do checking of tuple internal columns to determine if the
current row is still valid, or is part of a non-committed transaction or
superseded by a new row.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="include">
-<A HREF="../../backend/include">include</A></A>
+<A NAME="include"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/include">include</A>
- include files
</H2>
<P>
There are include directories for each subsystem.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="lib">
-<A HREF="../../backend/lib">lib</A></A>
+<A NAME="lib"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/lib">lib</A>
- support library
</H2>
<P>
This houses several generic routines.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="regex">
-<A HREF="../../backend/regex">regex</A></A>
+<A NAME="regex"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/regex">regex</A>
- regular expression library
</H2>
<P>
This is used for regular expression handling in the backend, i.e. '~'.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="rewrite">
-<A HREF="../../backend/rewrite">rewrite</A></A>
+<A NAME="rewrite"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/rewrite">rewrite</A>
- rules system
</H2>
<P>
This does processing for the rules system.
</P>
<H2>
-<A NAME="tioga">
-<A HREF="../../backend/tioga">tioga</A></A>
+<A NAME="tioga"></A>
+<A HREF="../../backend/tioga">tioga</A>
- unused (array handling?)
</H2>
-<HR>
+<BR>
+<HR SIZE="2" NOSHADE>
+<SMALL>
<ADDRESS>
-Maintainer: Bruce Momjian<A
-HREF="mailto:maillist@candle.pha.pa.us">maillist@candle.pha.pa.us</a>)<BR>
-Last updated: Mon Oct 27 11:01:08 EST 1997
+Maintainer: Bruce Momjian (<A
+HREF="mailto:maillist@candle.pha.pa.us">maillist@candle.pha.pa.us</A>)<BR>
+Last updated: Tue Dec 9 17:56:08 EST 1997
</ADDRESS>
+</SMALL>
+</BODY>
+</HTML>
<H2 ALIGN=CENTER>
by Bruce Momjian
</H2 ALIGN=CENTER>
+<P>
+Queries come into the backend via data packets coming in through TCP/IP
+and Unix Domain sockets. They are loaded into a string, and passed to
+the
+<A HREF="../../backend/parser">parser,</A> where the lexical scanner,
+<A HREF="../../backend/parser/scan.l">scan.l,</A>
+breaks the query up into tokens(words). The parser
+uses
+<A HREF="../../backend/parser/gram.y">gram.y</A> and the tokens to
+identify the query type, and load the proper query-type-specific
+structure, like
+<A HREF="../../include/nodes/parsenodes.h">CreateStmt or SelectStmt.</A>
+<P>
+The query is then identified as a <I>Utility</I> function or a more
+complex query. <I>Utility</I> queries are processed by a
+query-type-specific function in <A HREF="../../backend/commands">
+commands.</A> Complex queries, like <I>SELECT, UPDATE,</I> and
+<I>DELETE</I> require much more handling.
+<P>
+The parser takes the complex queries, and creates a
+<A HREF="../../include/nodes/parsenodes.h">Query</A> structure that
+contains all the elements used by complex queries. Query.qual holds the
+WHERE clause qualification, which is filled in by
+
+<A HREF="../../backend/parser/parse_clause.c">transformWhereClause().</A>
+Each table is represented by a <A HREF="../../include/nodes/parsenodes.h">
+RangeTableEntry,</A>
+and they are linked together to form the <I>range table</I> for the
+query, and is generated by <A HREF="../../backend/parser/parse_clause.c">
+makeRangeTable().</A> Query.rtable holds the queries range table.
+<P>
+Certain queries, like SELECT, return columns of data. Other queries,
+like INSERT and UPDATE, specify the columns modified by the query.
+These columns references are converted to <A
+HREF="../../include/nodes/primnodes.h"> Resdom</A> entries, which are
+linked together to make up the <I>target list</I> of the query. The
+target list is stored in Query.targetList, and is generated by
+<A HREF="../../backend/parser/parse_target.c">transformTargetList().</A>
+<P>
+Other query elements, like aggregates(SUM()), GROUP BY, ORDER BY are
+also stored in their own fields.
+<P>
+The next step is for the Query to be modified by any VIEWS or RULES that
+may apply to the query. This is performed by the <A
+HREF="../../backend/rewrite">rewrite</A> system.
+<P>
+The optimizer takes the Query structure, and generates an optimal
+<A HREF="../..//include/nodes/plannodes.h">Plan</A> containing primitive
+operations to be performed by the executor to complete the query. The
+<A HREF="../../backend/optimizer/path">path</A> module
+determines the table join order and join type of each of the tables in
+the RangeTable, using Query.qual(WHERE clause) to consider optimal index
+usage.
+<P>
+The Plan is then passed to the <A
+HREF="../../backend/executor">executor</A> for execution, and the result
+is returned to the client.
+<P>
+There are many other modules that support this basic functionality.
+They can be accessed by clicking on the flowchart.
+<P>
+Another area of interest is the shared memory area, containing
+table data/index blocks, locks, and backend information:
+<UL>
+<LI>ShmemIndex - contains an index of all other shared memory
+structures, allowing quick lookup of other structure locations in shared
+memory
+<LI>Buffer Descriptors - control header for shared memory buffer block
+<LI>Buffer Blocks - block of table/index data shared by all backends
+<LI>Shared Buf Lookup Table - lookup to see if a requested buffer
+is already in the shared memory area
+<LI>LockTable - lock table structure, specifiying table, lock types, and
+backends holding or waiting on lock
+<LI>LockTable (lock hash) - lookup of LockTable structures using
+table name
+<LI>LockTable (xid hash) - lookup of LockTable structures using
+transaction id
+<LI>Proc Header - information about each backend, including locks held/waiting,
+indexed by process id
+</UL>
+Each structure is created by calling <A
+HREF="../../backend/storage/ipc/shmem.c"> ShmemInitStruct().</A>
+<HR>
<CENTER>
-<BR>
<EM><BIG>
Click on an item to see more detail or click
<A HREF="backend_dirs.html">here</a> to see the full index.
<AREA COORDS="10,510,170,550" HREF="backend_dirs.html#nodes">
<AREA COORDS="10,570,170,610" HREF="backend_dirs.html#storage">
</MAP>
-<HR>
+<BR>
+<HR SIZE="2" NOSHADE>
+<SMALL>
<ADDRESS>
-Maintainer: Bruce Momjian<A
-HREF="mailto:maillist@candle.pha.pa.us">maillist@candle.pha.pa.us</a>)<BR>
-Last updated: Mon Oct 27 11:01:08 EST 1997
+Maintainer: Bruce Momjian (<A
+HREF="mailto:maillist@candle.pha.pa.us">maillist@candle.pha.pa.us</A>)<BR>
+Last updated: Tue Dec 9 17:56:08 EST 1997
</ADDRESS>
+</SMALL>
+</BODY>
+</HTML>