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Hash each row and combine the row hashes with XOR - #172

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ace-219
Oct 13, 2026
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rasifr merged 7 commits into
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@danolivo

@danolivo danolivo commented Oct 6, 2026 •

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Problem

The hash of an mtree leaf or a table-diff block joined the text of all rows of the block into one string with string_agg and hashed this string. On a block with a few million rows the string grew past the 1 GB limit on one value, and the query failed with out of memory (SQLSTATE 54000).

The row text also lost information. concat_ws('|', COALESCE(col::text, ''), ...) gives the same text for a NULL and for an empty string, and for the rows ('a|b', 'c') and ('a', 'b|c'). The diff didn't catch these differences.

Changes

  • Row hash. Each row is hashed separately: sha256(convert_to(ROW(col1, col2, ...)::text, 'UTF8')). The output of ROW() keeps NULL and empty strings apart and quotes delimiters. Numeric columns still go through trim_scale(). convert_to() produces the same bytes on nodes with different database encodings, which logical replication allows, and sha256 doesn't depend on the server's byte order.
  • Block hash. The block hash is the sha256 of the row count and of the sums of the four 64-bit words of the row hashes (read as signed integers). The aggregate state is one count and four sums, regardless of the number and the width of the rows. The row order doesn't matter, and each copy of a row counts: in an inheritance tree the parent and a child can hold rows with the same key, and a XOR of the row hashes would cancel them. An empty block hashes to 32 zero bytes.
  • mtree diff. The row hashes of the mtree diff use the same expression (queries.RowHashExpr). Otherwise, a leaf could differ while every row hash matches, and the diff would not fetch that block's rows. The row hash is read as 32 raw bytes, not as text.
  • Hash version. CurrentHashVersion is now 3. The next mtree update computes all stored leaf hashes again, in one transaction per node.
  • numeric[] columns. ACE wrapped a numeric[] column in trim_scale(), which has no array variant, so the hash queries failed on every table with such a column. Arrays are no longer wrapped.
  • No pgcrypto. The block hash uses the built-in sha256() (PostgreSQL 11 and later). pgcrypto came into ACE together with the switch from md5 to sha256 for Merkle tree leaves (Use Merkle trees in ACE cli#253) and was used only for digest(..., 'sha256'). ACE no longer creates the extension. table-diff --ensure-pgcrypto remains a hidden flag that only prints a warning, so scripts that still pass it do not fail.

Requirement: bit_xor needs PostgreSQL 14 or later.

@danolivo
danolivo requested a review from mason-sharp October 6, 2026 13:40
@danolivo danolivo self-assigned this Oct 6, 2026
@danolivo danolivo added the enhancement New feature or request label Oct 6, 2026
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📒 Files selected for processing (6)
  • db/queries/queries.go
  • docs/CHANGELOG.md
  • docs/commands/mtree/mtree-update.md
  • internal/consistency/mtree/merkle.go
  • internal/consistency/mtree/merkle_test.go
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📝 Walkthrough

Hash version 4 replaces ordered, concatenated row text with UTF-8 SHA-256 row hashes. The block aggregate combines the row count with four sums of signed 64-bit hash words. Merkle comparison uses byte hashes. Hash-version checks govern tree updates, and pgcrypto setup is removed.

Changes: Block and Merkle Hashing

Layer / File(s) Summary
Build and aggregate row hashes
db/queries/queries.go, db/queries/templates.go, db/queries/queries_test.go
RowHashExpr hashes the UTF-8 encoding of a row constructor and applies trim_scale to numeric and decimal scalar columns. Block-hash SQL aggregates row hashes using the row count and four signed-word sums. Empty blocks produce 32 zero bytes. The generated query does not order rows.
Use byte hashes in Merkle comparison
internal/consistency/mtree/merkle.go, internal/consistency/mtree/merkle_test.go
Merkle query construction uses RowHashExpr and propagates construction errors. The code scans row hashes as bytes, checks their length, and copies them into fixed-size storage. Tests cover buffer reuse and invalid hash lengths.
Enforce hash-version compatibility
internal/consistency/mtree/merkle.go, internal/consistency/mtree/merkle_test.go, tests/integration/mtree_hash_version_test.go, docs/commands/mtree/mtree-update.md, docs/CHANGELOG.md
mtree update rejects newer stored versions and can upgrade older trees by recomputing leaf hashes. Stale-leaf refresh requires the current version. Tests cover version errors, upgrades, and unchanged state when a newer version is present.
Remove pgcrypto setup
db/queries/queries.go, db/queries/templates.go, internal/cli/cli.go, internal/consistency/diff/table_diff.go, internal/consistency/mtree/merkle.go, tests/integration/main_test.go, tests/integration/native_pg_test.go, docs/CHANGELOG.md
The pgcrypto template and installation steps are removed. The deprecated CLI flag remains and logs a warning when set.
Verify block-hash behavior
tests/integration/block_hash_test.go, tests/integration/native_pg_test.go, docs/CHANGELOG.md
Integration tests compare table-diff and Merkle hashes across differing and identical rows, duplicates, insertion order, multiple encodings, empty input, and wide rows. The changelog records the hash-version 4 behavior.

Priority: ➖ Normal

Merge Risk: 🔵 Low · up to e4d0a

This change alters how row and block hashes are computed, so existing Merkle trees are rehashed on the next update. Newer-version trees are refused without being modified. Before merging, confirm rollout expectations, since rolling back after an update requires rebuilding the tree. No concrete defect was identified.

Security architecture risk: 🔵 Low · up to e4d0a

The change improves row comparison accuracy and reduces large-block memory pressure without requiring additional database privileges. Version upgrades are transactional per node, and rollback requires rebuilding trees. Concurrent mixed-version operation remains an operational limitation.

Retained concerns
No architecture-level concerns identified.

Security review details

Security Blast Radius

  • inferred — The visible impact is comparison accuracy and stored Merkle state for the selected tables and cluster nodes. The inspected changes do not establish a new network entrypoint, tenant scope, or credential boundary; production deployment and writer coordination remain outside the supplied evidence.

Trust Boundaries and Controls

  • observed — Database row values feed the hash computation, not SQL syntax. Schema, table, and key identifiers remain validated and quoted, column identifiers remain quoted, and key bounds remain parameters. The CLI-supplied table filter is still inserted as SQL under caller responsibility; that path is unchanged from the base, not a newly established injection finding.

Resilience and Maintainability Implications

  • inferred — Within one node, upgrade failures before commit roll back leaf/parent writes and the version marker together. Successful repetition skips full rehash once the version is current. Nodes commit separately, so partial cluster failure can leave different versions temporarily; the next update can resume, and a failed update prevents that diff invocation from comparing them.

Hardening Proposals

  • proposed — For deployments permitting concurrent hash writers, consider a per-tree writer fence or serialization contract spanning version validation through commit, and validate mixed-version build/update interleavings. This would strengthen the documented operational restriction; it is not a verified PR-introduced vulnerability.
Pre-merge checks · Passed 3 · Failed 2

Failed Failed checks (2 warnings)

Check name Status Explanation Resolution
Title check Warning The title correctly mentions per-row hashing and combining row hashes, but it incorrectly states that the implementation uses XOR. The implementation hashes the row count and four signed 64-bit sums, … Update the title to describe the implemented block-hash algorithm, such as "Hash each row and combine row-hash sums".
Docstring Coverage Warning Docstring coverage is 60.61% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 33 functions across 11 files. (2 skipped:… Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.
Passed Passed checks (3 passed)
Check name Status Explanation
Description check Passed The description directly explains the hashing problem, row-hash changes, block-hash aggregation, hash-version handling, numeric arrays, and pgcrypto removal. It is related to the changeset.
Linked Issues check Passed Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check Passed Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Full details: Title check

Explanation

The title correctly mentions per-row hashing and combining row hashes, but it incorrectly states that the implementation uses XOR. The implementation hashes the row count and four signed 64-bit sums, so the title is misleading about the primary algorithm.

Full details: Docstring Coverage

Explanation

Docstring coverage is 60.61% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 33 functions across 11 files. (2 skipped: 2 unsupported.)

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I’m a rabbit counting hashes in the moonlight,
Four word-sums hop beside each row,
Old leaf marks get a fresh spring coat,
Nulls and empty strings keep their place,
Pgcrypto rests beneath the clover,
And version four bounds away.

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Up to standards ✅

🟢 Issues 2 medium

Results:
2 new issues

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Complexity 2 medium

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🟢 Metrics -2 complexity · -3 duplication

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Actionable comments posted: 1


  • 🪄 Fix CodeRabbit comments on this PR
🤖 Prompt to fix review comments
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Inline comments:
Review comments at @db/queries/templates.go:
- Around line 1419-1434: Update TDBlockHashSQL and MtreeLeafHashSQL to include
the row count alongside the XOR result when computing each aggregate hash.
Ensure both hashes distinguish duplicate rows from an empty block while
preserving their existing output formats.

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📒 Files selected for processing (11)
  • db/queries/queries.go
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  • docs/CHANGELOG.md
  • internal/cli/cli.go
  • internal/consistency/diff/table_diff.go
  • internal/consistency/mtree/merkle.go
  • internal/consistency/mtree/merkle_test.go
  • tests/integration/block_hash_test.go
  • tests/integration/main_test.go
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Comment thread db/queries/templates.go Outdated
@mason-sharp
mason-sharp requested review from rasifr and removed request for mason-sharp October 7, 2026 13:29
@danolivo
danolivo force-pushed the ace-219 branch 2 times, most recently from 02fd0f3 to 18535c8 Compare October 9, 2026 07:38
Comment thread db/queries/queries.go Outdated
// 1: string_agg of whole-row ::text, hashed with pgcrypto digest().
// 2: string_agg of per-column concat_ws with trim_scale.
// 3: multiset hash of the sha256 hashes of the rows (see BlockHashAggExpr).
const CurrentHashVersion = 3

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Allocate a distinct hash version from current main

Merkle trees persist in the database across ACE invocations. Current main (86af353f) already assigns version 3 to its hash-affecting session/output-setting change, while this PR uses version 3 for a different block-hash algorithm.

If any tree is built with current main before this change is deployed, the new binary will see version 3 and skip the full recomputation. Clean leaves will retain the earlier algorithm, while subsequently dirtied leaves can be recomputed with this PR’s algorithm.

Please rebase onto current main and assign version 4 to the multiset-hash change. If it is guaranteed that current-main v3 can never be run or distributed independently, please document that release constraint explicitly.

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Hmm, all these PRs by-design should be applied in the same release. If something changes, we can bump the version again.
Anyway, applying different values in these PRs is risky, what if a commit with hash version 4 is pushed before 3? So, I used the same value just to get a conflict and fix it manually at the pre-merge stage.

return nil, fmt.Errorf("row hash has %d bytes, want %d", len(h), len(entry.hash))
}
copy(entry.hash[:], h)
result[key] = entry

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Preserve duplicate-key multiplicity after detecting the mismatched leaf.

The new block hash correctly distinguishes duplicate rows, but this map still retains only one entry per primary-key value. In an inheritance tree, a parent and child can contain rows with the same key, so the later row silently overwrites the earlier one here.

For example, {X, X} on one node versus {X} on another produces different leaf hashes, but both row-hash maps become key -> X. The row-level comparison then reports no difference, leaving the leaf inconsistent without an actionable row to report or repair. common.rowsToMap has the same multiplicity loss in table-diff.

Please retain all entries for a key—or explicitly reject this table shape. If repair is intended, the representation will also need enough physical relation identity to distinguish the parent copy from the child copy. An end-to-end {X, X} versus {X} test would expose this; the current test covers {X, X} versus no X, which still reports one row after the overwrite.

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@rasifr ,
The analysis is correct.
I would like to keep this out of the current PR, for two reasons:

  1. The problem is older than this PR. The previous block hash (string_agg over all rows of the block) also saw both copies of the row, and the same two maps also kept only one of them. So the state "the block differs, but no row differs" was already possible with the old code. This PR does not add it. It only makes the block hash count each copy, which is required for detection anyway.
  2. A correct fix is a separate piece of work. The comparison must keep all rows for a key, the report must show the extra copies, and repair needs the physical relation of each copy (for example, tableoid). This changes the row representation in the diff output and in repair, not only the hash.

The scope of this PR is the out-of-memory failure on large blocks and the row encoding collisions (NULL against an empty string, moved delimiters).

@rasifr

rasifr commented Oct 12, 2026

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Please add a compatibility guard for newer stored hash versions

The migration path only handles hashVersion < CurrentHashVersion. If an older ACE binary is run after an upgrade, it accepts a stored version greater than the version it understands.

It can then recompute dirty leaves with its older algorithm while hashVersionUpgraded remains false, so the newer version marker is retained. That leaves one tree containing hashes produced by multiple algorithms.

Please fail explicitly when hashVersion > CurrentHashVersion, or introduce an equivalent upgrade/rollback compatibility fence. If rollback is intentionally unsupported, that restriction should at least be enforced and documented rather than allowing a mixed tree to be written.

@danolivo

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Please add a compatibility guard for newer stored hash versions

The migration path only handles hashVersion < CurrentHashVersion. If an older ACE binary is run after an upgrade, it accepts a stored version greater than the version it understands.

It can then recompute dirty leaves with its older algorithm while hashVersionUpgraded remains false, so the newer version marker is retained. That leaves one tree containing hashes produced by multiple algorithms.

Please fail explicitly when hashVersion > CurrentHashVersion, or introduce an equivalent upgrade/rollback compatibility fence. If rollback is intentionally unsupported, that restriction should at least be enforced and documented rather than allowing a mixed tree to be written.

Done

@danolivo
danolivo requested a review from rasifr October 13, 2026 08:28
isNumericType and isNumericColType matched every type name that starts
with "numeric" or "decimal", so a numeric[] column was wrapped in
trim_scale() too. trim_scale has no array variant, and the block hash
and row hash queries failed on every table with such a column.

Arrays are no longer matched.
The hash of an mtree leaf or a table-diff block joined the text of all
its rows into one string with string_agg and then hashed it. On a block
with a few million rows this string grew past the 1 GB limit on one
value, and the build failed with "out of memory" (SQLSTATE 54000).
A customer hit this on a table of 3.79 billion rows: the sampled block
ranges gave some blocks millions of rows. A larger work_mem does not
help, because the limit is fixed.

The text of a row also lost information. concat_ws('|', ...) with
COALESCE(col::text, '') gave the same text for a NULL and for an empty
string, and for the rows ('a|b', 'c') and ('a', 'b|c'). The diff did not
see such differences.

Now each row is hashed separately. The row hash is
sha256(convert_to(ROW(...)::text, 'UTF8')). The record output of ROW()
keeps NULL and empty strings apart and quotes delimiters, and it has no
limit of 100 arguments, so concatWSBatched is gone. Numeric columns
still go through trim_scale. convert_to() gives the same bytes on nodes
with different database encodings, which logical replication allows,
and sha256 does not depend on the byte order of the server.

The block hash is the XOR of the row hashes: each hash is cast through
hex to bit(256), bit_xor combines them, and bit_send gives the 32 bytes
back. The aggregate state is one bit(256), whatever the number and the
width of the rows. The order of rows does not matter: the primary key is
part of every row hash, and a key appears at most once in a block.

The row hashes of the mtree diff use the same expression
(queries.RowHashExpr). Otherwise a leaf could differ while every row
hash matches, and the diff would not fetch the rows of that block. The
mtree diff reads the row hash as 32 raw bytes, not as text.
RowHashExpr returns an error for an empty column list: the whole-row
value of the table would be another encoding.

bit_xor needs PostgreSQL 14 or later. CurrentHashVersion is now 4, so
the next mtree update computes all stored leaf hashes again.
TestBlockHashEncoding loads rows into temporary tables on one node and
compares the mtree leaf hash and the table-diff block hash of each
table. The two hashes must always be the same.

Different rows must give different hashes: a NULL and an empty string,
a delimiter that moves from one column to the next, two rows that join
into one row of the same text, rows that swap their values, and an extra
row. The last two cases matter because bit_xor does not depend on the
order of rows. Equal rows must give equal hashes, also when they were
inserted in another order or when numeric values differ only in
trailing zeros. The test also checks the hash of an empty block and a
table with 150 columns.

For every table, the leaf must be the XOR of the row hashes that the
mtree diff reads, and a block of one row must hash to the sha256 of its
row text. This checks the whole formula on the server, including the way
the bit(256) value becomes 32 bytes again.

The same rows must also give the same hash in a LATIN1 database and in
a UTF8 database. The test skips this case if it cannot create a LATIN1
database.

With the earlier hash, NULL against an empty string, the moved
delimiter and the joined rows give equal hashes.
The block hash uses the built-in sha256(), so ACE no longer needs
pgcrypto. mtree no longer creates the extension in RunChecks, and
table-diff no longer creates it for --ensure-pgcrypto or suggests it
when a hash query fails. The integration tests no longer create it, so
they check that ACE works without it.

--ensure-pgcrypto is kept as a hidden flag that only prints a warning,
so that scripts that still pass it do not fail.
The block hash was the XOR of the row hashes. Two equal rows cancel each
other in a XOR. In an inheritance tree this can happen: the primary key
of the parent does not stop a child from having a row with the same key.
A block with the same row in the parent and in a child then had the same
hash as a block without this row, and table-diff did not look into it.

Now the row hash is cut into four 64-bit words, read as signed integers.
The block hash is the sha256 of the row count and the four sums of these
words. sum(bigint) gives a numeric, so the sums do not overflow. This is
a multiset hash: the order of rows still does not matter, and each copy
of a row counts. A row count added to the XOR is not enough: {X, X, Y}
and {Y, W, W} have the same count and the same XOR.

The inner query computes the row hash once, as bit(256). OFFSET 0 keeps
the planner from pulling it up into the aggregate, where it would be
computed once for each word. An empty block still hashes to 32 zero
bytes, so it does not change its parent node in the tree.

The block hash no longer uses bit_xor, so it does not need PostgreSQL 14.

TestBlockHashEncoding checks the formula against a Go version of it and
covers duplicate keys in a parent and its child. TestNativePG runs
table-diff on such a tree on two nodes.
All leaves of a tree must be computed by the algorithm that the stored
hash version names. Two paths could break this.

mtree update upgraded a tree whose version was older than
CurrentHashVersion, but it accepted a newer version without a check. An
older ACE that ran after a newer one could recompute the dirty leaves
with its own algorithm and keep the newer version number. Nothing would
then make the newer ACE recompute them. Now mtree update, and mtree
table-diff through it, stop with an error if the stored version on any
node is newer. The check runs before the CDC drain and before any node
is changed, and again in the transaction that writes the leaves, because
a newer ACE can rebuild the tree in between.

refreshStaleLeaves rewrites some leaves and keeps the version. On a tree
with an older version it would write leaves of the current algorithm
under the older number. Now it requires the current version. Only mtree
update may write into an older tree: it marks every leaf dirty,
recomputes all of them and writes the current version in one
transaction.

mtree update also did not write the new version when no dirty block was
left after the splits and the merges. A leaf stops being dirty only when
its hash is computed again, so after an upgrade this case has no leaf of
the older algorithm, and the version can be written. Every way out of
the per-node work now goes through one function that writes the version
after an upgrade and then commits. It also returns commit errors, which
two early exits ignored.

mtree build is still allowed on a newer tree: it writes every leaf and
the version again, so it is the way back to an older ACE. ACE versions
released before this one do not have the check. The CHANGELOG and the
mtree update page say to rebuild the tree with mtree build of such a
version before using it.

TestMtreeRefusesNewerHashVersion checks that update and diff refuse a
newer tree and change nothing, that build restores it, and that update
upgrades an older tree. TestHashVersionError covers every case of the
check.
@rasifr
rasifr merged commit 86c0f1d into main Oct 13, 2026
3 of 4 checks passed
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