We were applying the use_physical_tlist optimization to all relation
scan plans, even those implemented by custom scan providers. However,
that's a bad idea for a couple of reasons. The custom provider might
be unable to provide columns that it hadn't expected to be asked for
(for example, the custom scan might depend on an index-only scan).
Even more to the point, there's no good reason to suppose that this
"optimization" is a win for a custom scan; whatever the custom provider
is doing is likely not based on simply returning physical heap tuples.
(As a counterexample, if the custom scan is an interface to a column store,
demanding all columns would be a huge loss.) If it is a win, the custom
provider could make that decision for itself and insert a suitable
pathtarget into the path, anyway.
Per discussion with Dmitry Ivanov. Back-patch to 9.5 where custom scan
support was introduced. The argument that the custom provider can adjust
the behavior by changing the pathtarget only applies to 9.6+, but on
balance it seems more likely that use_physical_tlist will hurt custom
scans than help them.
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/
e29ddd30-8ef9-4da5-a50b-
2bb7b8c7198d@postgrespro.ru
if (rel->reloptkind != RELOPT_BASEREL)
return false;
+ /*
+ * Also, don't do it to a CustomPath; the premise that we're extracting
+ * columns from a simple physical tuple is unlikely to hold for those.
+ * (When it does make sense, the custom path creator can set up the path's
+ * pathtarget that way.)
+ */
+ if (IsA(path, CustomPath))
+ return false;
+
/*
* Can't do it if any system columns or whole-row Vars are requested.
* (This could possibly be fixed but would take some fragile assumptions