apache / apache/polaris

Polaris persistence / unclear behavior when creating entites with the same name

Open
#767 8 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Dominant language
Java
Stars
2.1k
Forks
522
Avg merge
1d 17h
Merged PRs (30d)
137

Description

### Describe the bug

I'm not sure whether Polaris persistence can ensure that no two entities (think: Iceberg tables & views) with the same name can ever exist.

The reason I'm bringing this up is the disconnect of the name resolution vs technical ID resolution.

It feels possible that two concurrent requests to e.g. create a new table pass the "that name does not yet exist" check and then both write new entities with the same name.

The name checks are only _programmatic_ checks against previous read operations - but there is nothing that technically prevents having duplicate names.

### To Reproduce

_No response_

### Actual Behavior

_No response_

### Expected Behavior

_No response_

### Additional context

_No response_

### System information

_No response_

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

No files, tests, or entry points are named. Start by tracing Polaris persistence creation and the separate name- and technical-ID-resolution paths, then examine concurrent creation of entities with the same name. Done requires a documented uniqueness decision and verification of the resulting behavior under concurrent requests.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java
Domain
databases
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
28/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.