Don't reduce output request size on non-Unix-socket connections.

tglsfdc · tglsfdc · commit 3f37400cfb87 · 2025-06-10T18:39:34.000-04:00
Traditionally, libpq's pqPutMsgEnd has rounded down the amount-to-send to be a multiple of 8K when it is eagerly writing some data. This still seems like a good idea when sending through a Unix socket, as pipes typically have a buffer size of 8K or some fraction/multiple of that. But there's not much argument for it on a TCP connection, since (a) standard MTU values are not commensurate with that, and (b) the kernel typically applies its own packet splitting/merging logic. Worse, our SSL and GSSAPI code paths both have API stipulations that if they fail to send all the data that was offered in the previous write attempt, we mustn't offer less data in the next attempt; else we may get "SSL error: bad length" or "GSSAPI caller failed to retransmit all data needing to be retried". The previous write attempt might've been pqFlush attempting to send everything in the buffer, so pqPutMsgEnd can't safely write less than the full buffer contents. (Well, we could add some more state to track exactly how much the previous write attempt was, but there's little value evident in such extra complication.) Hence, apply the round-down only on AF_UNIX sockets, where we never use SSL or GSSAPI. Interestingly, we had a very closely related bug report before, which I attempted to fix in commit d053a87. But the test case we had then seemingly didn't trigger this pqFlush-then-pqPutMsgEnd scenario, or at least we failed to recognize this variant of the bug. Bug: #18907 Reported-by: Dorjpalam Batbaatar <htgn.dbat.95@gmail.com> Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/18907-d41b9bcf6f29edda@postgresql.org Backpatch-through: 13
diff --git a/src/backend/libpq/be-secure-gssapi.c b/src/backend/libpq/be-secure-gssapi.c
@@ -120,9 +120,9 @@ be_gssapi_write(Port *port, void *ptr, size_t len)
 	 * again, so if it offers a len less than that, something is wrong.
 	 *
 	 * Note: it may seem attractive to report partial write completion once
-	 * we've successfully sent any encrypted packets.  However, that can cause
-	 * problems for callers; notably, pqPutMsgEnd's heuristic to send only
-	 * full 8K blocks interacts badly with such a hack.  We won't save much,
+	 * we've successfully sent any encrypted packets.  However, doing that
+	 * expands the state space of this processing and has been responsible for
+	 * bugs in the past (cf. commit d053a879b).  We won't save much,
 	 * typically, by letting callers discard data early, so don't risk it.
 	 */
 	if (len < PqGSSSendConsumed)
diff --git a/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-misc.c b/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-misc.c
@@ -539,9 +539,35 @@ pqPutMsgEnd(PGconn *conn)
 	/* Make message eligible to send */
 	conn->outCount = conn->outMsgEnd;
 
+	/* If appropriate, try to push out some data */
 	if (conn->outCount >= 8192)
 	{
-		int			toSend = conn->outCount - (conn->outCount % 8192);
+		int			toSend = conn->outCount;
+
+		/*
+		 * On Unix-pipe connections, it seems profitable to prefer sending
+		 * pipe-buffer-sized packets not randomly-sized ones, so retain the
+		 * last partial-8K chunk in our buffer for now.  On TCP connections,
+		 * the advantage of that is far less clear.  Moreover, it flat out
+		 * isn't safe when using SSL or GSSAPI, because those code paths have
+		 * API stipulations that if they fail to send all the data that was
+		 * offered in the previous write attempt, we mustn't offer less data
+		 * in this write attempt.  The previous write attempt might've been
+		 * pqFlush attempting to send everything in the buffer, so we mustn't
+		 * offer less now.  (Presently, we won't try to use SSL or GSSAPI on
+		 * Unix connections, so those checks are just Asserts.  They'll have
+		 * to become part of the regular if-test if we ever change that.)
+		 */
+		if (conn->raddr.addr.ss_family == AF_UNIX)
+		{
+#ifdef USE_SSL
+			Assert(!conn->ssl_in_use);
+#endif
+#ifdef ENABLE_GSS
+			Assert(!conn->gssenc);
+#endif
+			toSend -= toSend % 8192;
+		}
 
 		if (pqSendSome(conn, toSend) < 0)
 			return EOF;
diff --git a/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-secure-gssapi.c b/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-secure-gssapi.c
@@ -112,9 +112,9 @@ pg_GSS_write(PGconn *conn, const void *ptr, size_t len)
 	 * again, so if it offers a len less than that, something is wrong.
 	 *
 	 * Note: it may seem attractive to report partial write completion once
-	 * we've successfully sent any encrypted packets.  However, that can cause
-	 * problems for callers; notably, pqPutMsgEnd's heuristic to send only
-	 * full 8K blocks interacts badly with such a hack.  We won't save much,
+	 * we've successfully sent any encrypted packets.  However, doing that
+	 * expands the state space of this processing and has been responsible for
+	 * bugs in the past (cf. commit d053a879b).  We won't save much,
 	 * typically, by letting callers discard data early, so don't risk it.
 	 */
 	if (len < PqGSSSendConsumed)
