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IO: LogicalSubxactRead

Waiting for a read from a logical subxact file.
PostgreSQL wait event dossier
ClassIO EventLogicalSubxactRead VersionsPG 14 Evidence1 source location(s)

Official description

Waiting for a read from a logical subxact file.

PG 13 PG 14 PG 15 PG 16 PG 17 PG 18
— ✓ — — — —

Trigger mechanism

The catalog identity is present, but source audit found no live reporter in 14. Known active ranges: none. The definition location below is retained as negative evidence; this exact release cannot emit the event from a core code path. Evidence: pgsql-hackers confirmation.

Normal or trouble?

  • Normal: No live core occurrence is expected on the audited release.
  • Investigate: If telemetry shows it, verify the exact patch version, extension origin, and whether the sample is stale or came from a different server.

Diagnostic SQL

Sessions waiting on IO/LogicalSubxactRead
SELECT pid, backend_type, usename, datname, application_name,
       state, now() - query_start AS query_age,
       now() - xact_start AS xact_age,
       wait_event_type, wait_event,
       pg_blocking_pids(pid) AS blocking_pids,
       left(query, 160) AS query
FROM pg_stat_activity
WHERE wait_event_type = 'IO'
  AND wait_event = 'LogicalSubxactRead'
ORDER BY query_age DESC NULLS LAST;
Current IO cohort
SELECT wait_event, count(*) AS waiting_sessions,
       count(*) FILTER (WHERE state = 'active') AS active_waiters,
       max(now() - query_start) AS oldest_query
FROM pg_stat_activity
WHERE wait_event_type = 'IO'
GROUP BY wait_event
ORDER BY waiting_sessions DESC, wait_event;
Lock and relation context for these sessions
SELECT a.pid, l.locktype, l.mode, l.granted, l.fastpath,
       d.datname, n.nspname, c.relname,
       l.page, l.tuple, l.virtualxid, l.transactionid,
       l.classid, l.objid, l.objsubid
FROM pg_stat_activity AS a
LEFT JOIN pg_locks AS l ON l.pid = a.pid
LEFT JOIN pg_database AS d ON d.oid = l.database
LEFT JOIN pg_class AS c
  ON c.oid = l.relation
 AND l.database = (
       SELECT oid FROM pg_database WHERE datname = current_database()
     )
LEFT JOIN pg_namespace AS n ON n.oid = c.relnamespace
WHERE a.wait_event_type = 'IO'
  AND a.wait_event = 'LogicalSubxactRead'
ORDER BY a.pid, l.granted, l.locktype, l.mode;

Response

  1. Confirm the workload phase should touch this file class.
  2. Correlate with pg_stat_io where available and per-device latency.
  3. Fix the access path, burst shape, or affected storage tier before tuning unrelated memory settings.

Source evidence