Bug Type (问题类型)

logic (逻辑设计问题)

Before submit

• 我已经确认现有的 Issues 与 FAQ 中没有相同 / 重复问题 (I have confirmed and searched that there are no similar problems in the historical issue and documents)

Environment (环境信息)

• Server Version: master / PR fix(query): clarify condition resolution semantics for label queries #2994 based branch
• Backend: HStore
• OS: GitHub Actions hstore CI

Expected & Actual behavior (期望与实际表现)

While investigating the hstore CI failure in #2994, we found an existing latent issue in the HStore range-index scan path.

For range-index queries with limit, offset, or paging, HugeGraph's upper layer assumes that backend range scan results are returned in global range-index-key order. It also assumes that the returned PageState.position() can be reused as a HugeGraph range cursor.

However, HStore's multi-node/tablet scan path can return entries in backend iterator order instead of globally sorted key order. The page state is also an internal storage cursor, not necessarily a HugeGraph range-index key. This can make range-index queries return unstable ordering or skip valid entries when paging is involved.

One concrete failure exposed by #2994 was:

graph.traversal().V().hasLabel("person")
 .has("birth", P.between(date2013, date2016))
 .limit(2)
 .toList();

The expected range-index order is:
2013 -> 2014 -> 2015

But the HStore scan returned entries like:
2014 -> 2013 -> 2015

Then limit(2) selected the wrong first two entries.

Another paging-related failure showed that after the first page, the page position was an HStore internal cursor. Reusing it as the range scan start could skip valid range-index entries.

In #2994 we added a narrow workaround in GraphIndexTransaction: for HStore range-index queries whose visible result depends on limit, offset, or paging, the index layer reads the matched range-index entries, sorts them by range-index value, and slices them at the HugeGraph layer. Unbounded range-index scans still use the original streaming path to avoid disturbing count, joint-index, and cleanup paths.

This workaround fixes the immediate user-visible correctness issue, but the lower-level contract is still unclear.

Expected behavior

HStore range scans should have a clear and reliable contract:

If HugeGraph range-index scan semantics require ordered results, HStore should return globally sorted entries across node/tablet iterators.
PageState.position() should have a well-defined meaning. It should be clear whether it is a backend-internal cursor or a HugeGraph key cursor.
Range-index paging should not skip valid entries or depend on accidental backend iterator order.

Possible fix direction

A more complete fix should probably be handled in the HStore store-client / scan iterator layer:

• define whether IdRangeQuery results must be globally ordered by key;
• merge multiple node/tablet iterators by key order when serving ordered range scans;
• separate backend-internal page cursor semantics from HugeGraph range-key cursor semantics;
• add HStore-specific regression tests for:
  • range index + limit;
  • range index + offset;
  • range index + paging across multiple pages;
  • cross-node/tablet range scans;
  • count / joint-index / left-index cleanup paths to avoid regressions.

Related context

This was exposed during #2994, but it does not seem to be caused by the query-condition refactoring itself. The PR only made the latent HStore issue visible in CI.

Vertex/Edge example (问题点 / 边数据举例)

Schema [VertexLabel, EdgeLabel, IndexLabel] (元数据结构)