Bug #56292 Deadlock with ALTER TABLE and MERGE tables

ALTER TABLE on a MERGE table could cause a deadlock with two
other connections if we reached a situation where:

1) A connection doing ALTER TABLE can't upgrade to MDL_EXCLUSIVE on the
parent table, but holds TL_READ_NO_INSERT on the child tables.
2) A connection doing DELETE on a child table can't get TL_WRITE on it
since ALTER TABLE holds TL_READ_NO_INSERT.
3) A connection doing SELECT on the parent table can't get TL_READ on 
the child tables since TL_WRITE is ahead in the lock queue, but holds
MDL_SHARED_READ on the parent table preventing ALTER TABLE from upgrading.

For regular tables, this deadlock is avoided by having ALTER TABLE
take a MDL_SHARED_NO_WRITE metadata lock on the table. This prevents
DELETE from acquiring MDL_SHARED_WRITE on the table before ALTER TABLE
tries to upgrade to MDL_EXCLUSIVE. In the example above, SELECT would
therefore not be blocked by the pending DELETE as DELETE would not be
able to enter TL_WRITE in the table lock queue.

This patch fixes the problem for merge tables by using the same metadata
lock type for child tables as for the parent table. The child tables will
in this case therefore be locked with MDL_SHARED_NO_WRITE, preventing
DELETE from acquiring a metadata lock and enter into the table lock queue.

Change in behavior: By taking the same metadata lock for child tables
as for the parent table, LOCK TABLE on the parent table will now also
implicitly lock the child tables. Since LOCK TABLE on the parent table
now takes more than one metadata lock, it is possible for LOCK TABLE
... WRITE on the parent table or child tables to give ER_LOCK_DEADLOCK
error.

Test case added to mdl_sync.test.
Merge.test/.result has been updated to reflect the change to LOCK TABLE.

1 files changed, 38 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/mysql-test/r/mdl_sync.result b/mysql-test/r/mdl_sync.result
index d484ab77701..de57e3859b7 100644
--- a/mysql-test/r/mdl_sync.result
+++ b/mysql-test/r/mdl_sync.result
@@ -2913,3 +2913,41 @@ UNLOCK TABLES;
 # Connection default
 UNLOCK TABLES;
 DROP DATABASE db1;
+#
+# Bug#56292 Deadlock with ALTER TABLE and MERGE tables
+#
+DROP TABLE IF EXISTS t1, t2, m1;
+CREATE TABLE t1(a INT) engine=MyISAM;
+CREATE TABLE t2(a INT) engine=MyISAM;
+CREATE TABLE m1(a INT) engine=MERGE UNION=(t1, t2);
+INSERT INTO t1 VALUES (1), (2);
+INSERT INTO t2 VALUES (3), (4);
+# Connection con1
+SET DEBUG_SYNC= 'mdl_upgrade_shared_lock_to_exclusive SIGNAL upgrade WAIT_FOR continue';
+# Sending:
+ALTER TABLE m1 engine=MERGE UNION=(t2, t1);
+# Connection con2
+# Waiting for ALTER TABLE to try lock upgrade
+SET DEBUG_SYNC= 'now WAIT_FOR upgrade';
+# Sending:
+DELETE FROM t2 WHERE a = 3;
+# Connection default
+# Check that DELETE is waiting on a metadata lock and not a table lock.
+# Now that DELETE blocks on a metadata lock, we should be able to do
+# SELECT * FROM m1 here. SELECT used to be blocked by a DELETE table
+# lock request.
+SELECT * FROM m1;
+a
+1
+2
+3
+4
+# Resuming ALTER TABLE
+SET DEBUG_SYNC= 'now SIGNAL continue';
+# Connection con1
+# Reaping: ALTER TABLE m1 engine=MERGE UNION=(t2, t1)
+# Connection con2
+# Reaping: DELETE FROM t2 WHERE a = 3
+# Connection default
+DROP TABLE m1, t1, t2;
+SET DEBUG_SYNC= 'RESET';