Reduce WAL activity by freezing tuples immediately

When we compress a chunk, we create a new compressed chunk for storing
the compressed data. So far, the tuples were just inserted into the
compressed chunk and frozen by a later vacuum run.

However, freezing tuples causes WAL activity can be optimized because
the compressed chunk is created in the same transaction as the tuples.
This patch reduces the WAL activity by storing these tuples directly as
frozen and preventing a freeze operation in the future. This approach is
similar to PostgreSQL's COPY FREEZE.

.unreleased/feature_5890

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Implements: #5890 Reduce WAL activity by freezing compressed tuples immediately

tsl/src/compression/api.c

@@ -487,6 +487,27 @@ compress_chunk_impl(Oid hypertable_relid, Oid chunk_relid)
 		compress_ht_chunk = ts_chunk_get_by_id(mergable_chunk->fd.compressed_chunk_id, true);
 		result_chunk_id = mergable_chunk->table_id;
 	}
+
+	/* Since the compressed relation is created in the same transaction as the tuples that will be
+	 * written by the compressor, we can insert the tuple directly in frozen state. This is the same
+	 * logic as performed in COPY INSERT FROZEN.
+	 *
+	 * Note: Tuples inserted with HEAP_INSERT_FROZEN become immediately visible to all transactions
+	 * (they violate the MVCC pattern). So, this flag can only be used when creating the compressed
+	 * chunk in the same transaction as the compressed tuples are inserted.
+	 *
+	 * If this isn't the case, then tuples can be seen multiple times by parallel readers - once in
+	 * the uncompressed part of the hypertable (since they are not deleted in the transaction) and
+	 * once in the compressed part of the hypertable since the MVCC semantic is violated due to the
+	 * flag.
+	 *
+	 * In contrast, when the compressed chunk part is created in the same transaction as the tuples
+	 * are written, the compressed chunk (i.e., the catalog entry) becomes visible to other
+	 * transactions only after the transaction that performs the compression is commited and
+	 * the uncompressed chunk is truncated.
+	 */
+	int insert_options = new_compressed_chunk ? HEAP_INSERT_FROZEN : 0;
+
 	/* convert list to array of pointers for compress_chunk */
 	colinfo_array = palloc(sizeof(ColumnCompressionInfo *) * htcols_listlen);
 	foreach (lc, htcols_list)
@@ -498,7 +519,8 @@ compress_chunk_impl(Oid hypertable_relid, Oid chunk_relid)
 	cstat = compress_chunk(cxt.srcht_chunk->table_id,
 						   compress_ht_chunk->table_id,
 						   colinfo_array,
-						   htcols_listlen);
+						   htcols_listlen,
+						   insert_options);
 
 	/* Drop all FK constraints on the uncompressed chunk. This is needed to allow
 	 * cascading deleted data in FK-referenced tables, while blocking deleting data
@@ -1071,7 +1093,8 @@ tsl_get_compressed_chunk_index_for_recompression(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 						in_column_offsets,
 						compressed_rel_tupdesc->natts,
 						true /*need_bistate*/,
-						true /*reset_sequence*/);
+						true /*reset_sequence*/,
+						0 /*insert options*/);
 
 	/*
 	 * Keep the ExclusiveLock on the compressed chunk. This lock will be requested
@@ -1370,7 +1393,8 @@ tsl_recompress_chunk_segmentwise(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 						in_column_offsets,
 						compressed_rel_tupdesc->natts,
 						true /*need_bistate*/,
-						true /*reset_sequence*/);
+						true /*reset_sequence*/,
+						0 /*insert options*/);
 
 	/* create an array of the segmentby column offsets in the compressed chunk */
 	int16 *segmentby_column_offsets_compressed =

tsl/src/compression/compression.c

@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@
 #include <utils/fmgroids.h>
 #include <utils/lsyscache.h>
 #include <utils/memutils.h>
+#include <utils/portal.h>
 #include <utils/rel.h>
 #include <utils/relcache.h>
 #include <utils/snapmgr.h>
@@ -53,6 +54,7 @@
 #include "create.h"
 #include "custom_type_cache.h"
 #include "arrow_c_data_interface.h"
+#include "debug_assert.h"
 #include "debug_point.h"
 #include "deltadelta.h"
 #include "dictionary.h"
@@ -222,7 +224,7 @@ truncate_relation(Oid table_oid)
 
 CompressionStats
 compress_chunk(Oid in_table, Oid out_table, const ColumnCompressionInfo **column_compression_info,
-			   int num_compression_infos)
+			   int num_compression_infos, int insert_options)
 {
 	int n_keys;
 	ListCell *lc;
@@ -398,7 +400,8 @@ compress_chunk(Oid in_table, Oid out_table, const ColumnCompressionInfo **column
 						in_column_offsets,
 						out_desc->natts,
 						true /*need_bistate*/,
-						false /*reset_sequence*/);
+						false /*reset_sequence*/,
+						insert_options);
 
 	if (matched_index_rel != NULL)
 	{
@@ -440,6 +443,7 @@ compress_chunk(Oid in_table, Oid out_table, const ColumnCompressionInfo **column
 	}
 
 	row_compressor_finish(&row_compressor);
+	DEBUG_WAITPOINT("compression_done_before_truncate_uncompressed");
 	truncate_relation(in_table);
 
 	table_close(out_rel, NoLock);
@@ -835,7 +839,8 @@ void
 row_compressor_init(RowCompressor *row_compressor, TupleDesc uncompressed_tuple_desc,
 					Relation compressed_table, int num_compression_infos,
 					const ColumnCompressionInfo **column_compression_info, int16 *in_column_offsets,
-					int16 num_columns_in_compressed_table, bool need_bistate, bool reset_sequence)
+					int16 num_columns_in_compressed_table, bool need_bistate, bool reset_sequence,
+					int insert_options)
 {
 	TupleDesc out_desc = RelationGetDescr(compressed_table);
 	int col;
@@ -882,6 +887,7 @@ row_compressor_init(RowCompressor *row_compressor, TupleDesc uncompressed_tuple_
 		.sequence_num = SEQUENCE_NUM_GAP,
 		.reset_sequence = reset_sequence,
 		.first_iteration = true,
+		.insert_options = insert_options,
 	};
 
 	memset(row_compressor->compressed_is_null, 1, sizeof(bool) * num_columns_in_compressed_table);
@@ -1213,7 +1219,7 @@ row_compressor_flush(RowCompressor *row_compressor, CommandId mycid, bool change
 	heap_insert(row_compressor->compressed_table,
 				compressed_tuple,
 				mycid,
-				0 /*=options*/,
+				row_compressor->insert_options /*=options*/,
 				row_compressor->bistate);
 	if (row_compressor->resultRelInfo->ri_NumIndices > 0)
 	{

tsl/src/compression/compression.h

@@ -262,6 +262,8 @@ typedef struct RowCompressor
 	bool reset_sequence;
 	/* flag for checking if we are working on the first tuple */
 	bool first_iteration;
+	/* the heap insert options */
+	int insert_options;
 } RowCompressor;
 
 /* SegmentFilter is used for filtering segments based on qualifiers */
@@ -310,7 +312,7 @@ pg_attribute_unused() assert_num_compression_algorithms_sane(void)
 extern CompressionStorage compression_get_toast_storage(CompressionAlgorithms algo);
 extern CompressionStats compress_chunk(Oid in_table, Oid out_table,
 									   const ColumnCompressionInfo **column_compression_info,
-									   int num_compression_infos);
+									   int num_compression_infos, int insert_options);
 extern void decompress_chunk(Oid in_table, Oid out_table);
 
 extern DecompressionIterator *(*tsl_get_decompression_iterator_init(
@@ -351,7 +353,7 @@ extern void row_compressor_init(RowCompressor *row_compressor, TupleDesc uncompr
 								Relation compressed_table, int num_compression_infos,
 								const ColumnCompressionInfo **column_compression_info,
 								int16 *column_offsets, int16 num_columns_in_compressed_table,
-								bool need_bistate, bool reset_sequence);
+								bool need_bistate, bool reset_sequence, int insert_options);
 extern void row_compressor_finish(RowCompressor *row_compressor);
 extern void populate_per_compressed_columns_from_data(PerCompressedColumn *per_compressed_cols,
 													  int16 num_cols, Datum *compressed_datums,