maria-developers team mailing list archive

[Sergei Golubchik <serg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi!

On Jul 10, Sergei Golubchik wrote:
> 
> In 5.5 we have ALTER ONLINE TABLE syntax, where ONLINE de facto means
> "without copying the data".
> 
> Now, after 5.6 merge we also have ALGORITHM=COPY|INPLACE and
> LOCK=NONE|SHARED|EXCLUSIVE.
> 
> I've mapped ONLINE to ALGORITHM=INPLACE, because that's what it means.
> 
> But it's confusing, one can have an "inplace" operation under an
> exclusive lock, if the engine wants it that way. And it won't be 
> "online" by any stretch of imagination. One can also technically have a
> "copy" operation with a very permissive write-allow-write lock, and
> it'll be as online as one can get it.

So, I'm trying to make ONLINE to mean LOCK=NONE.

And as I've realized, there can no possibly be a truly online, LOCK=NONE
ALTER TABLE operation. For example,

  create table t1 (b int);
  alter table t1 modify b int default 5;

is not online in MyISAM. Which, kind of, makes sense, because the server
have to take an exclusive metadata lock to update the table definition.

But for an InnoDB table such an operation is claimed to be online. Which
is wrong, frm file still have to be updated, and an exclusive metadata
lock is still needed:

  create table t1 (b int) engine=myisam;
  alter table t1 modify b int default 5, lock=none;
  ^^^ error, use LOCK=EXCLUSIVE

  create table t1 (b int) engine=innodb;
  start transaction;
  insert t1 values (1);
  -- in another connection
  alter table t1 modify b int default 5, lock=none;
  ^^^ no error. lock=none is accepted, but the statement hangs
  -- in yet another connection
  insert t1 values (2);
  ^^^ hangs, blocked by the alter table, that is not quite "online"

So, at best LOCK=NONE is inconsistent. But really, almost any ALTER will
need an exclusive metadata lock, even if for an instant. So no ALTER
TABLE can ever be really LOCK=NONE or ONLINE.

Unless we redefine what "online" mean. If not, there's no choice but
stop claming an "online alter" support and remove ONLINE and LOCK=NONE
from the syntax.

Opinions?

Regards,
Sergei