Check conn liveness before using when idle for more than 1 second

Implemented in pgxpool.Pool and database/sql.

https://github.com/jackc/pgx/issues/672

pgxpool/pool.go

@@ -417,6 +417,15 @@ func (p *Pool) Acquire(ctx context.Context) (*Conn, error) {
 		}
 
 		cr := res.Value()
+
+		if res.IdleDuration() > time.Second {
+			err := cr.conn.PgConn().CheckConn()
+			if err != nil {
+				res.Destroy()
+				continue
+			}
+		}
+
 		if p.beforeAcquire == nil || p.beforeAcquire(ctx, cr.conn) {
 			return cr.getConn(p, res), nil
 		}

pgxpool/pool_test.go

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/jackc/pgx/v5"
 	"github.com/jackc/pgx/v5/pgxpool"
+	"github.com/jackc/pgx/v5/pgxtest"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
 )
@@ -141,6 +142,57 @@ func TestPoolAcquireAndConnHijack(t *testing.T) {
 	require.Equal(t, int32(1), n)
 }
 
+func TestPoolAcquireChecksIdleConns(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	controllerConn, err := pgx.Connect(context.Background(), os.Getenv("PGX_TEST_DATABASE"))
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	defer controllerConn.Close(context.Background())
+	pgxtest.SkipCockroachDB(t, controllerConn, "Server does not support pg_terminate_backend() (https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/issues/35897)")
+
+	pool, err := pgxpool.Connect(context.Background(), os.Getenv("PGX_TEST_DATABASE"))
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	defer pool.Close()
+
+	var conns []*pgxpool.Conn
+	for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
+		c, err := pool.Acquire(context.Background())
+		require.NoError(t, err)
+		conns = append(conns, c)
+	}
+
+	require.EqualValues(t, 3, pool.Stat().TotalConns())
+
+	var pids []uint32
+	for _, c := range conns {
+		pids = append(pids, c.Conn().PgConn().PID())
+		c.Release()
+	}
+
+	_, err = controllerConn.Exec(context.Background(), `select pg_terminate_backend(n) from unnest($1::int[]) n`, pids)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	// All conns are dead they don't know it and neither does the pool.
+	require.EqualValues(t, 3, pool.Stat().TotalConns())
+
+	// Wait long enough so the pool will realize it needs to check the connections.
+	time.Sleep(time.Second)
+
+	// Pool should try all existing connections and find them dead, then create a new connection which should successfully ping.
+	err = pool.Ping(context.Background())
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	// The original 3 conns should have been terminated and the a new conn established for the ping.
+	require.EqualValues(t, 1, pool.Stat().TotalConns())
+	c, err := pool.Acquire(context.Background())
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	cPID := c.Conn().PgConn().PID()
+	c.Release()
+
+	require.NotContains(t, pids, cPID)
+}
+
 func TestPoolAcquireFunc(t *testing.T) {
 	t.Parallel()
 

stdlib/sql.go

@@ -313,6 +313,7 @@ type Conn struct {
 	driver               *Driver
 	connConfig           pgx.ConnConfig
 	resetSessionFunc     func(context.Context, *pgx.Conn) error // Function is called before a connection is reused
+	lastResetSessionTime time.Time
 }
 
 // Conn returns the underlying *pgx.Conn
@@ -450,6 +451,14 @@ func (c *Conn) ResetSession(ctx context.Context) error {
 		return driver.ErrBadConn
 	}
 
+	now := time.Now()
+	if now.Sub(c.lastResetSessionTime) > time.Second {
+		if err := c.conn.PgConn().CheckConn(); err != nil {
+			return driver.ErrBadConn
+		}
+	}
+	c.lastResetSessionTime = now
+
 	return c.resetSessionFunc(ctx, c.conn)
 }
 

stdlib/sql_test.go

@@ -1154,3 +1154,67 @@ func TestResetSessionHookCalled(t *testing.T) {
 
 	require.True(t, mockCalled)
 }
+
+func TestCheckIdleConn(t *testing.T) {
+	controllerConn, err := sql.Open("pgx", os.Getenv("PGX_TEST_DATABASE"))
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	defer closeDB(t, controllerConn)
+
+	skipCockroachDB(t, controllerConn, "Server does not support pg_terminate_backend() (https://github.com/cockroachdb/cockroach/issues/35897)")
+
+	db, err := sql.Open("pgx", os.Getenv("PGX_TEST_DATABASE"))
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	defer closeDB(t, db)
+
+	var conns []*sql.Conn
+	for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
+		c, err := db.Conn(context.Background())
+		require.NoError(t, err)
+		conns = append(conns, c)
+	}
+
+	require.EqualValues(t, 3, db.Stats().OpenConnections)
+
+	var pids []uint32
+	for _, c := range conns {
+		err := c.Raw(func(driverConn any) error {
+			pids = append(pids, driverConn.(*stdlib.Conn).Conn().PgConn().PID())
+			return nil
+		})
+		require.NoError(t, err)
+		err = c.Close()
+		require.NoError(t, err)
+	}
+
+	// The database/sql connection pool seems to automatically close idle connections to only keep 2 alive.
+	// require.EqualValues(t, 3, db.Stats().OpenConnections)
+
+	_, err = controllerConn.ExecContext(context.Background(), `select pg_terminate_backend(n) from unnest($1::int[]) n`, pids)
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	// All conns are dead they don't know it and neither does the pool. But because of database/sql automatically closing
+	// idle connections we can't be sure how many we should have. require.EqualValues(t, 3, db.Stats().OpenConnections)
+
+	// Wait long enough so the pool will realize it needs to check the connections.
+	time.Sleep(time.Second)
+
+	// Pool should try all existing connections and find them dead, then create a new connection which should successfully ping.
+	err = db.PingContext(context.Background())
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	// The original 3 conns should have been terminated and the a new conn established for the ping.
+	require.EqualValues(t, 1, db.Stats().OpenConnections)
+	c, err := db.Conn(context.Background())
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	var cPID uint32
+	err = c.Raw(func(driverConn any) error {
+		cPID = driverConn.(*stdlib.Conn).Conn().PgConn().PID()
+		return nil
+	})
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	err = c.Close()
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	require.NotContains(t, pids, cPID)
+}