Allow "internal" subtransactions in parallel mode.

Allow use of BeginInternalSubTransaction() in parallel mode, so long
as the subtransaction doesn't attempt to acquire an XID or increment
the command counter.  Given those restrictions, the other parallel
processes don't need to know about the subtransaction at all, so
this should be safe.  The benefit is that it allows subtransactions
intended for error recovery, such as pl/pgsql exception blocks,
to be used in PARALLEL SAFE functions.

Another reason for doing this is that the API of
BeginInternalSubTransaction() doesn't allow reporting failure.
pl/python for one, and perhaps other PLs, copes very poorly with an
error longjmp out of BeginInternalSubTransaction().  The headline
feature of this patch removes the only easily-triggerable failure
case within that function.  There remain some resource-exhaustion
and similar cases, which we now deal with by promoting them to FATAL
errors, so that callers need not try to clean up.  (It is likely
that such errors would leave us with corrupted transaction state
inside xact.c, making recovery difficult if not impossible anyway.)

Although this work started because of a report of a pl/python crash,
we're not going to do anything about that in the back branches.
Back-patching this particular fix is obviously not very wise.
While we could contemplate some narrower band-aid, pl/python is
already an untrusted language, so it seems okay to classify this
as a "so don't do that" case.

Patch by me, per report from Hao Zhang.  Thanks to Robert Haas for
review.

Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/CALY6Dr-2yLVeVPhNMhuBnRgOZo1UjoTETgtKBx1B2gUi8yy+3g@mail.gmail.com

2 files changed, 15 insertions, 13 deletions

diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/parallel.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/parallel.sgml
index 5acc9537d6f..dae9dd7f2f9 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/parallel.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/parallel.sgml
@@ -545,10 +545,10 @@ EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM pgbench_accounts WHERE filler LIKE '%x%';
   </para>
 
   <para>
-    Functions and aggregates must be marked <literal>PARALLEL UNSAFE</literal> if
-    they write to the database, access sequences, change the transaction state
-    even temporarily (e.g., a PL/pgSQL function that establishes an
-    <literal>EXCEPTION</literal> block to catch errors), or make persistent changes to
+    Functions and aggregates must be marked <literal>PARALLEL UNSAFE</literal>
+    if they write to the database, change the transaction state (other than by
+    using a subtransaction for error recovery), access sequences, or make
+    persistent changes to
     settings.  Similarly, functions must be marked <literal>PARALLEL
     RESTRICTED</literal> if they access temporary tables, client connection state,
     cursors, prepared statements, or miscellaneous backend-local state that
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_function.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_function.sgml
index 863d99d1fc0..0d240484cd3 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_function.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_function.sgml
@@ -428,22 +428,24 @@ CREATE [ OR REPLACE ] FUNCTION
     <term><literal>PARALLEL</literal></term>
 
     <listitem>
-     <para><literal>PARALLEL UNSAFE</literal> indicates that the function
-      can't be executed in parallel mode and the presence of such a
+     <para>
+      <literal>PARALLEL UNSAFE</literal> indicates that the function
+      can't be executed in parallel mode; the presence of such a
       function in an SQL statement forces a serial execution plan.  This is
       the default.  <literal>PARALLEL RESTRICTED</literal> indicates that
-      the function can be executed in parallel mode, but the execution is
-      restricted to parallel group leader.  <literal>PARALLEL SAFE</literal>
+      the function can be executed in parallel mode, but only in the parallel
+      group leader process.  <literal>PARALLEL SAFE</literal>
       indicates that the function is safe to run in parallel mode without
-      restriction.
+      restriction, including in parallel worker processes.
      </para>
 
      <para>
       Functions should be labeled parallel unsafe if they modify any database
-      state, or if they make changes to the transaction such as using
-      sub-transactions, or if they access sequences or attempt to make
-      persistent changes to settings (e.g., <literal>setval</literal>).  They should
-      be labeled as parallel restricted if they access temporary tables,
+      state, change the transaction state (other than by using a
+      subtransaction for error recovery), access sequences (e.g., by
+      calling <literal>currval</literal>) or make persistent changes to
+      settings.  They should
+      be labeled parallel restricted if they access temporary tables,
       client connection state, cursors, prepared statements, or miscellaneous
       backend-local state which the system cannot synchronize in parallel mode
       (e.g.,  <literal>setseed</literal> cannot be executed other than by the group