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Re: ALTER ONLINE TABLE syntax

 

Hi,

On 8/14/2013 3:49 PM, Sergei Golubchik wrote:
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:

I found it to be a documented limitation, although it took some browsing because the page has a rather strange name:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.6/en/innodb-create-index-limitations.html

Inside of it, however, hides the section "Limitations of Online DDL", which, among other things, says:

"During each online DDL ALTER TABLE statement, regardless of the LOCK clause, there are brief periods at the beginning and end requiring an exclusive lock on the table (the same kind of lock specified by the LOCK=EXCLUSIVE clause). "

Of course, the definition of the word "brief" might also require reconsidering.

Regards,
/E


   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


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