Does CLOCK_TIMESTAMP from a BEFORE trigger match log/commit order *exactly* in PG 12.3?

Question

I've got a Postgres 12.3 question: Can I rely on CLOCK_TIMESTAMP() in a trigger to stamp an updated_dts timestamp in exactly the same order as changes are committed to the permanent data?

On the face of it, this might sound like kind of an silly question, but I just spent two tracking down a super rare race condition in a non-Postgres system that hinged on exactly this behavior. (Lagging commits made their 'last value seen' tracking data unreliable.) Now I'm trying to figure out if it's possible for CLOCK_TIMESTAMP() to not match the order of changes recorded in the WAL perfectly.

It's simple to see how this could occur with NOW/TRANSACTION_TIMESTAMP/CURRENT_TIMESTAMP as they're returning the transaction start time, not the completion time. It's pretty easy, in that case, to record a timestamp sequence where the stamps and log order don't agree. But I can't figure out if there's any chance for commits to be saved in a different order to the BEFORE trigger CLOCK_TIMESTAMP() values.

For background, we need a 100% reliable timeline for an external search to use. As I understand it, I can create one using logical replication, and a replication-target side trigger to stamp changes as they're replayed from the log. What I'm unclear on, is if it's possible to get the same fidelity from CLOCK_TIMESTAMP() on a single server.

I haven't got the chops to get deep into the Postgres internals, and see how requests are interleaved, nor how granular execution is, and am hoping that someone here knows definitively. If this is more of a question for one of the PG mailing lists, please let me know.

-- Thanks

Below is a bit of sample code for how I'm looking at building the timestamps. It works fine, but doesn't prove anything about behavior with lots of concurrent processes.

---------------------------------------------
-- Create the trigger function
---------------------------------------------
DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS api.set_updated CASCADE;

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION api.set_updated()
RETURNS TRIGGER

AS $BODY$
BEGIN
   NEW.updated_dts = CLOCK_TIMESTAMP();
   RETURN NEW;
END;
$BODY$
language plpgsql;

COMMENT ON FUNCTION api.set_updated() IS 'Sets updated_dts field to CLOCK_TIMESTAMP(), if the record has changed..';

---------------------------------------------
-- Create the table
---------------------------------------------
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS api.numbers;

CREATE TABLE api.numbers (
    id          uuid NOT NULL DEFAULT extensions.gen_random_uuid (),
    number      integer NOT NULL DEFAULT NULL,
    updated_dts timestamptz NOT NULL DEFAULT 'epoch'::timestamptz
);

---------------------------------------------
-- Define the triggers (binding)
---------------------------------------------
-- NOTE: I'm guessing that in production that I can use DEFAULT CLOCK_TIMESTAMP() instead of a BEFORE INSERT trigger,
-- I'm using a distinct DEFAULT value, as I want it to pop out if I'm not getting the trigger to fire.
CREATE TRIGGER trigger_api_number_before_insert
    BEFORE INSERT ON api.numbers
    FOR EACH ROW
    EXECUTE PROCEDURE set_updated();

CREATE TRIGGER trigger_api_number_before_update
    BEFORE UPDATE ON api.numbers
    FOR EACH ROW
    WHEN (OLD.* IS DISTINCT FROM NEW.*)
    EXECUTE PROCEDURE set_updated();

---------------------------------------------
-- INSERT some data
---------------------------------------------
INSERT INTO numbers (number) values (1),(2),(3);

---------------------------------------------
-- Take a look
---------------------------------------------
SELECT * from numbers ORDER BY updated_dts ASC; -- The values should be listed as 1, 2, 3 as oldest to newest.

---------------------------------------------
-- UPDATE a row
---------------------------------------------
UPDATE numbers SET number = 11 where number = 1;

---------------------------------------------
-- Take a look
---------------------------------------------
SELECT * from numbers ORDER BY updated_dts ASC; -- The values should be listed as 2, 3, 11 as oldest to newest.

Answer 1

No, you cannot depend on clock_timestamp() order during trigger execution (or while evaluating a DEFAULT clause) being the same as commit order.

Commit will always happen later than the function call, and you cannot control how long it takes between them.

But I am surprised that that is a problem for you. Typically, the commit time is not visible or relevant. Why don't you simply accept the clock_timestamp() as the measure of things?