MagicStack / MagicStack/asyncpg
Feature request: Support for asynchronous command processing
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- Dominant language
- Python
- Stars
- 8.1k
- Forks
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Description
libpq has support for something called asynchronous command processing (https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/libpq-async.html).
Thea idea is fairly simple: you can queue up multiple queries on one connection without waiting for the previous result and then wait for all the results at the end. This avoids waiting for network round trips between queries, which at least in theory should have the same performance benefits as running multiple queries with one network round trip.
It would be useful if asyncpg could support the same concept. The Python API should be fairly straightforward. You just start multiple coroutines with queries and then await all of them together at the end. Something like this:
```python
q1 = conn.fetch('SELECT $1', 1)
q2 = conn.fetch('SELECT $1', 2)
q3 = conn.fetch('SELECT $1', 3)
results = await asyncio.gather(q1, q2, q3) # (currently this raises InterfaceError)
```
This could have significant performance benefits in situations where you make multiple fast independent queries, especially if there is a large network round-trip delay.
AFAIK implementing this is definitely possible in theory. In practice, the complexity depends a lot on how the internals of asyncpg are structured, which I am not familiar with.
EDIT: This request is motivated by the same goal as https://github.com/MagicStack/asyncpg/issues/839, but my proposal is to specifically use asynchronous command processing _without_ pipelining. If my understanding of the extended query protocol is correct, it should be possible to issue multiple queries without waiting for results between them but with a sync point after each query, which helps avoid the complex error handling rules of pipeline mode. (If my understanding of extended query protocol is not correct, this may be impossible. Feel free to correct me.)
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First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with the libpq asynchronous command processing documentation linked in the issue, then inspect the asyncpg connection API around conn.fetch and the current InterfaceError behavior when coroutines are gathered. Compare the proposed non-pipelined behavior with the extended query protocol and determine whether the requested API and synchronization semantics are feasible; the issue provides no file or test entry point.
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Assessment
- Tech stack
- postgresql, python
- Domain
- databases
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100