LWLocks episode artwork

EPISODE · Oct 17, 2025 · 38 MIN

LWLocks

from Postgres FM · host Nikolay Samokhvalov and Michael Christofides

Nik and Michael discuss lightweight locks in Postgres — how they differ to (heavier) locks, some occasions they can be troublesome, and some resources for working out what to do if you hit issues. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Wait Events of Type LWLock https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/monitoring-stats.html#WAIT-EVENT-LWLOCK-TABLEOur episode on (heavier) locks https://postgres.fm/episodes/locksNik’s new marathon posts https://postgres.ai/blog/tags/postgres-marathonPostgres LISTEN/NOTIFY does not scale (blog post by Recall ai) https://www.recall.ai/blog/postgres-listen-notify-does-not-scaleExplicit Locking https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/explicit-locking.htmlpg_stat_activity https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/monitoring-stats.html#MONITORING-PG-STAT-ACTIVITY-VIEWTuning with wait events for RDS for PostgreSQL https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/PostgreSQL.Tuning.htmlMultiXact member exhaustion incidents (blog post by Cosmo Wolfe / Metronome) https://metronome.com/blog/root-cause-analysis-postgresql-multixact-member-exhaustion-incidents-may-2025pg_index_pilot https://gitlab.com/postgres-ai/pg_index_pilotMyths and Truths about Synchronous Replication in PostgreSQL (talk by Alexander Kukushkin) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFn9qRGzTMcPostgres Indexes, Partitioning and LWLock:LockManager Scalability (blog post by Jeremy Schneider) https://ardentperf.com /2024/03/03/postgres-indexes-partitioning-and-lwlocklockmanager-scalability~~~What did you like or not like? What should we discuss next time? Let us know via a YouTube comment, on social media, or by commenting on our Google doc!~~~Postgres FM is produced by:Michael Christofides, founder of pgMustardNikolay Samokhvalov, founder of Postgres.aiWith credit to:Jessie Draws for the elephant artwork

Nik and Michael discuss lightweight locks in Postgres — how they differ to (heavier) locks, some occasions they can be troublesome, and some resources for working out what to do if you hit issues. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Wait Events of Type LWLock https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/monitoring-stats.html#WAIT-EVENT-LWLOCK-TABLEOur episode on (heavier) locks https://postgres.fm/episodes/locksNik’s new marathon posts https://postgres.ai/blog/tags/postgres-marathonPostgres LISTEN/NOTIFY does not scale (blog post by Recall ai) https://www.recall.ai/blog/postgres-listen-notify-does-not-scaleExplicit Locking https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/explicit-locking.htmlpg_stat_activity https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/monitoring-stats.html#MONITORING-PG-STAT-ACTIVITY-VIEWTuning with wait events for RDS for PostgreSQL https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/PostgreSQL.Tuning.htmlMultiXact member exhaustion incidents (blog post by Cosmo Wolfe / Metronome) https://metronome.com/blog/root-cause-analysis-postgresql-multixact-member-exhaustion-incidents-may-2025pg_index_pilot https://gitlab.com/postgres-ai/pg_index_pilotMyths and Truths about Synchronous Replication in PostgreSQL (talk by Alexander Kukushkin) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFn9qRGzTMcPostgres Indexes, Partitioning and LWLock:LockManager Scalability (blog post by Jeremy Schneider) https://ardentperf.com /2024/03/03/postgres-indexes-partitioning-and-lwlocklockmanager-scalability~~~What did you like or not like? What should we discuss next time? Let us know via a YouTube comment, on social media, or by commenting on our Google doc!~~~Postgres FM is produced by:Michael Christofides, founder of pgMustardNikolay Samokhvalov, founder of Postgres.aiWith credit to:Jessie Draws for the elephant artwork

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LWLocks

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This episode was published on October 17, 2025.

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Nik and Michael discuss lightweight locks in Postgres — how they differ to (heavier) locks, some occasions they can be troublesome, and some resources for working out what to do if you hit issues. Here are some links to things they mentioned:Wait...

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