Be more careful about marking catalog columns NOT NULL by default.

The bug fixed in commit 72eab84 would not have occurred if initdb
had a less surprising rule about which columns should be marked
NOT NULL by default.  Let's make that rule be strictly that the
column must be fixed-width and its predecessors must be fixed-width
and NOT NULL, removing the hacky and unsafe exceptions for oidvector
and int2vector.

Since we do still want all existing oidvector and int2vector columns
to be marked NOT NULL, we have to put BKI_FORCE_NOT_NULL labels on
them.  But making this less magic and more documented seems like a
good idea, even if it's a shade more verbose.

I didn't bump catversion since the initial catalog contents are
not actually changed by this patch.  Note however that the
contents of postgres.bki do change, and feeding an old copy of
that to a new backend will produce wrong results.

Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/204760.1595181800@sss.pgh.pa.us

Author: tglsfdc

doc/src/sgml/bki.sgml

@@ -119,7 +119,8 @@
    require all columns that should be non-nullable to be marked so
    in <structname>pg_attribute</structname>.  The bootstrap code will
    automatically mark catalog columns as <literal>NOT NULL</literal>
-   if they are fixed-width and are not preceded by any nullable column.
+   if they are fixed-width and are not preceded by any nullable or
+   variable-width column.
    Where this rule is inadequate, you can force correct marking by using
    <literal>BKI_FORCE_NOT_NULL</literal>
    and <literal>BKI_FORCE_NULL</literal> annotations as needed.

src/backend/bootstrap/bootstrap.c

@@ -770,25 +770,18 @@ DefineAttr(char *name, char *type, int attnum, int nullness)
 
 		/*
 		 * Mark as "not null" if type is fixed-width and prior columns are
-		 * too.  This corresponds to case where column can be accessed
-		 * directly via C struct declaration.
-		 *
-		 * oidvector and int2vector are also treated as not-nullable, even
-		 * though they are no longer fixed-width.
+		 * likewise fixed-width and not-null.  This corresponds to case where
+		 * column can be accessed directly via C struct declaration.
 		 */
-#define MARKNOTNULL(att) \
-		((att)->attlen > 0 || \
-		 (att)->atttypid == OIDVECTOROID || \
-		 (att)->atttypid == INT2VECTOROID)
-
-		if (MARKNOTNULL(attrtypes[attnum]))
+		if (attrtypes[attnum]->attlen > 0)
 		{
 			int			i;
 
 			/* check earlier attributes */
 			for (i = 0; i < attnum; i++)
 			{
-				if (!attrtypes[i]->attnotnull)
+				if (attrtypes[i]->attlen <= 0 ||
+					!attrtypes[i]->attnotnull)
 					break;
 			}
 			if (i == attnum)

src/backend/catalog/genbki.pl

@@ -713,17 +713,21 @@ sub gen_pg_attribute
 		push @tables_needing_macros, $table_name;
 
 		# Generate entries for user attributes.
-		my $attnum       = 0;
-		my $priornotnull = 1;
+		my $attnum          = 0;
+		my $priorfixedwidth = 1;
 		foreach my $attr (@{ $table->{columns} })
 		{
 			$attnum++;
 			my %row;
 			$row{attnum}   = $attnum;
 			$row{attrelid} = $table->{relation_oid};
 
-			morph_row_for_pgattr(\%row, $schema, $attr, $priornotnull);
-			$priornotnull &= ($row{attnotnull} eq 't');
+			morph_row_for_pgattr(\%row, $schema, $attr, $priorfixedwidth);
+
+			# Update $priorfixedwidth --- must match morph_row_for_pgattr
+			$priorfixedwidth &=
+			  ($row{attnotnull} eq 't'
+				  && ($row{attlen} eq 'NAMEDATALEN' || $row{attlen} > 0));
 
 			# If it's bootstrapped, put an entry in postgres.bki.
 			print_bki_insert(\%row, $schema) if $table->{bootstrap};
@@ -765,13 +769,13 @@ sub gen_pg_attribute
 
 # Given $pgattr_schema (the pg_attribute schema for a catalog sufficient for
 # AddDefaultValues), $attr (the description of a catalog row), and
-# $priornotnull (whether all prior attributes in this catalog are not null),
+# $priorfixedwidth (all prior columns are fixed-width and not null),
 # modify the $row hashref for print_bki_insert.  This includes setting data
 # from the corresponding pg_type element and filling in any default values.
 # Any value not handled here must be supplied by caller.
 sub morph_row_for_pgattr
 {
-	my ($row, $pgattr_schema, $attr, $priornotnull) = @_;
+	my ($row, $pgattr_schema, $attr, $priorfixedwidth) = @_;
 	my $attname = $attr->{name};
 	my $atttype = $attr->{type};
 
@@ -801,19 +805,18 @@ sub morph_row_for_pgattr
 	{
 		$row->{attnotnull} = 'f';
 	}
-	elsif ($priornotnull)
+	elsif ($priorfixedwidth)
 	{
 
 		# attnotnull will automatically be set if the type is
-		# fixed-width and prior columns are all NOT NULL ---
-		# compare DefineAttr in bootstrap.c. oidvector and
-		# int2vector are also treated as not-nullable.
+		# fixed-width and prior columns are likewise fixed-width
+		# and NOT NULL --- compare DefineAttr in bootstrap.c.
+		# At this point the width of type name is still symbolic,
+		# so we need a special test.
 		$row->{attnotnull} =
-		    $type->{typname} eq 'oidvector'  ? 't'
-		  : $type->{typname} eq 'int2vector' ? 't'
-		  : $type->{typlen} eq 'NAMEDATALEN' ? 't'
-		  : $type->{typlen} > 0              ? 't'
-		  :                                    'f';
+		    $row->{attlen} eq 'NAMEDATALEN' ? 't'
+		  : $row->{attlen} > 0              ? 't'
+		  :                                   'f';
 	}
 	else
 	{

src/include/catalog/genbki.h

@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@
 /*
  * Variable-length catalog fields (except possibly the first not nullable one)
  * should not be visible in C structures, so they are made invisible by #ifdefs
- * of an undefined symbol.  See also MARKNOTNULL in bootstrap.c for how this is
- * handled.
+ * of an undefined symbol.  See also the BOOTCOL_NULL_AUTO code in bootstrap.c
+ * for how this is handled.
  */
 #undef CATALOG_VARLEN
 

src/include/catalog/pg_index.h

@@ -44,12 +44,14 @@ CATALOG(pg_index,2610,IndexRelationId) BKI_SCHEMA_MACRO
 	bool		indisreplident; /* is this index the identity for replication? */
 
 	/* variable-length fields start here, but we allow direct access to indkey */
-	int2vector	indkey;			/* column numbers of indexed cols, or 0 */
+	int2vector	indkey BKI_FORCE_NOT_NULL;	/* column numbers of indexed cols,
+											 * or 0 */
 
 #ifdef CATALOG_VARLEN
-	oidvector	indcollation;	/* collation identifiers */
-	oidvector	indclass;		/* opclass identifiers */
-	int2vector	indoption;		/* per-column flags (AM-specific meanings) */
+	oidvector	indcollation BKI_FORCE_NOT_NULL;	/* collation identifiers */
+	oidvector	indclass BKI_FORCE_NOT_NULL;	/* opclass identifiers */
+	int2vector	indoption BKI_FORCE_NOT_NULL;	/* per-column flags
+												 * (AM-specific meanings) */
 	pg_node_tree indexprs;		/* expression trees for index attributes that
 								 * are not simple column references; one for
 								 * each zero entry in indkey[] */

src/include/catalog/pg_partitioned_table.h

@@ -41,13 +41,17 @@ CATALOG(pg_partitioned_table,3350,PartitionedRelationId)
 	 * field of a heap tuple can be reliably accessed using its C struct
 	 * offset, as previous fields are all non-nullable fixed-length fields.
 	 */
-	int2vector	partattrs;		/* each member of the array is the attribute
-								 * number of a partition key column, or 0 if
-								 * the column is actually an expression */
+	int2vector	partattrs BKI_FORCE_NOT_NULL;	/* each member of the array is
+												 * the attribute number of a
+												 * partition key column, or 0
+												 * if the column is actually
+												 * an expression */
 
 #ifdef CATALOG_VARLEN
-	oidvector	partclass;		/* operator class to compare keys */
-	oidvector	partcollation;	/* user-specified collation for keys */
+	oidvector	partclass BKI_FORCE_NOT_NULL;	/* operator class to compare
+												 * keys */
+	oidvector	partcollation BKI_FORCE_NOT_NULL;	/* user-specified
+													 * collation for keys */
 	pg_node_tree partexprs;		/* list of expressions in the partition key;
 								 * one item for each zero entry in partattrs[] */
 #endif

src/include/catalog/pg_proc.h

@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ CATALOG(pg_proc,1255,ProcedureRelationId) BKI_BOOTSTRAP BKI_ROWTYPE_OID(81,Proce
 	 */
 
 	/* parameter types (excludes OUT params) */
-	oidvector	proargtypes BKI_LOOKUP(pg_type);
+	oidvector	proargtypes BKI_LOOKUP(pg_type) BKI_FORCE_NOT_NULL;
 
 #ifdef CATALOG_VARLEN
 

src/include/catalog/pg_statistic_ext.h

@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ CATALOG(pg_statistic_ext,3381,StatisticExtRelationId)
 	 * variable-length fields start here, but we allow direct access to
 	 * stxkeys
 	 */
-	int2vector	stxkeys;		/* array of column keys */
+	int2vector	stxkeys BKI_FORCE_NOT_NULL; /* array of column keys */
 
 #ifdef CATALOG_VARLEN
 	char		stxkind[1] BKI_FORCE_NOT_NULL;	/* statistics kinds requested

src/include/catalog/pg_trigger.h

@@ -54,7 +54,8 @@ CATALOG(pg_trigger,2620,TriggerRelationId)
 	 * Variable-length fields start here, but we allow direct access to
 	 * tgattr. Note: tgattr and tgargs must not be null.
 	 */
-	int2vector	tgattr;			/* column numbers, if trigger is on columns */
+	int2vector	tgattr BKI_FORCE_NOT_NULL;	/* column numbers, if trigger is
+											 * on columns */
 
 #ifdef CATALOG_VARLEN
 	bytea		tgargs BKI_FORCE_NOT_NULL;	/* first\000second\000tgnargs\000 */