Add a Gather Merge executor node.

Like Gather, we spawn multiple workers and run the same plan in each
one; however, Gather Merge is used when each worker produces the same
output ordering and we want to preserve that output ordering while
merging together the streams of tuples from various workers.  (In a
way, Gather Merge is like a hybrid of Gather and MergeAppend.)

This works out to a win if it saves us from having to perform an
expensive Sort.  In cases where only a small amount of data would need
to be sorted, it may actually be faster to use a regular Gather node
and then sort the results afterward, because Gather Merge sometimes
needs to wait synchronously for tuples whereas a pure Gather generally
doesn't.  But if this avoids an expensive sort then it's a win.

Rushabh Lathia, reviewed and tested by Amit Kapila, Thomas Munro,
and Neha Sharma, and reviewed and revised by me.

Discussion: http://postgr.es/m/CAGPqQf09oPX-cQRpBKS0Gq49Z+m6KBxgxd_p9gX8CKk_d75HoQ@mail.gmail.com

4 files changed, 61 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/src/include/nodes/execnodes.h b/src/include/nodes/execnodes.h
index 6a0d590ef2..f856f6036f 100644
--- a/src/include/nodes/execnodes.h
+++ b/src/include/nodes/execnodes.h
@@ -2095,6 +2095,35 @@ typedef struct GatherState
 } GatherState;
 
 /* ----------------
+ * GatherMergeState information
+ *
+ *		Gather merge nodes launch 1 or more parallel workers, run a
+ *		subplan which produces sorted output in each worker, and then
+ *		merge the results into a single sorted stream.
+ * ----------------
+ */
+struct GMReaderTuple;
+
+typedef struct GatherMergeState
+{
+	PlanState	ps;				/* its first field is NodeTag */
+	bool		initialized;
+	struct ParallelExecutorInfo *pei;
+	int			nreaders;
+	int			nworkers_launched;
+	struct TupleQueueReader **reader;
+	TupleDesc	tupDesc;
+	TupleTableSlot **gm_slots;
+	struct binaryheap *gm_heap; /* binary heap of slot indices */
+	bool		gm_initialized; /* gather merge initilized ? */
+	bool		need_to_scan_locally;
+	int			gm_nkeys;
+	SortSupport gm_sortkeys;	/* array of length ms_nkeys */
+	struct GMReaderTupleBuffer *gm_tuple_buffers;		/* tuple buffer per
+														 * reader */
+} GatherMergeState;
+
+/* ----------------
  *	 HashState information
  * ----------------
  */
diff --git a/src/include/nodes/nodes.h b/src/include/nodes/nodes.h
index 49fa944755..2bc7a5df11 100644
--- a/src/include/nodes/nodes.h
+++ b/src/include/nodes/nodes.h
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ typedef enum NodeTag
 	T_WindowAgg,
 	T_Unique,
 	T_Gather,
+	T_GatherMerge,
 	T_Hash,
 	T_SetOp,
 	T_LockRows,
@@ -127,6 +128,7 @@ typedef enum NodeTag
 	T_WindowAggState,
 	T_UniqueState,
 	T_GatherState,
+	T_GatherMergeState,
 	T_HashState,
 	T_SetOpState,
 	T_LockRowsState,
@@ -249,6 +251,7 @@ typedef enum NodeTag
 	T_MaterialPath,
 	T_UniquePath,
 	T_GatherPath,
+	T_GatherMergePath,
 	T_ProjectionPath,
 	T_ProjectSetPath,
 	T_SortPath,
diff --git a/src/include/nodes/plannodes.h b/src/include/nodes/plannodes.h
index 7fbb0c2c77..b880dc16cf 100644
--- a/src/include/nodes/plannodes.h
+++ b/src/include/nodes/plannodes.h
@@ -797,6 +797,22 @@ typedef struct Gather
 	bool		invisible;		/* suppress EXPLAIN display (for testing)? */
 } Gather;
 
+/* ------------
+ *		gather merge node
+ * ------------
+ */
+typedef struct GatherMerge
+{
+	Plan		plan;
+	int			num_workers;
+	/* remaining fields are just like the sort-key info in struct Sort */
+	int			numCols;		/* number of sort-key columns */
+	AttrNumber *sortColIdx;		/* their indexes in the target list */
+	Oid		   *sortOperators;	/* OIDs of operators to sort them by */
+	Oid		   *collations;		/* OIDs of collations */
+	bool	   *nullsFirst;		/* NULLS FIRST/LAST directions */
+} GatherMerge;
+
 /* ----------------
  *		hash build node
  *
diff --git a/src/include/nodes/relation.h b/src/include/nodes/relation.h
index f7ac6f600f..05d6f07aea 100644
--- a/src/include/nodes/relation.h
+++ b/src/include/nodes/relation.h
@@ -1204,6 +1204,19 @@ typedef struct GatherPath
 } GatherPath;
 
 /*
+ * GatherMergePath runs several copies of a plan in parallel and
+ * collects the results. For gather merge parallel leader always execute the
+ * plan.
+ */
+typedef struct GatherMergePath
+{
+	Path		path;
+	Path	   *subpath;		/* path for each worker */
+	int			num_workers;	/* number of workers sought to help */
+} GatherMergePath;
+
+
+/*
  * All join-type paths share these fields.
  */