34.12. Miscellaneous Functions #
As always, there are some functions that just don't fit anywhere.
PQfreemem
#Frees memory allocated by libpq.
void PQfreemem(void *ptr);
Frees memory allocated by libpq, particularly
PQescapeByteaConn
,PQescapeBytea
,PQunescapeBytea
, andPQnotifies
. It is particularly important that this function, rather thanfree()
, be used on Microsoft Windows. This is because allocating memory in a DLL and releasing it in the application works only if multithreaded/single-threaded, release/debug, and static/dynamic flags are the same for the DLL and the application. On non-Microsoft Windows platforms, this function is the same as the standard library functionfree()
.PQconninfoFree
#Frees the data structures allocated by
PQconndefaults
orPQconninfoParse
.void PQconninfoFree(PQconninfoOption *connOptions);
If the argument is a
NULL
pointer, no operation is performed.A simple
PQfreemem
will not do for this, since the array contains references to subsidiary strings.PQencryptPasswordConn
#Prepares the encrypted form of a Postgres Pro password.
char *PQencryptPasswordConn(PGconn *conn, const char *passwd, const char *user, const char *algorithm);
This function is intended to be used by client applications that wish to send commands like
ALTER USER joe PASSWORD 'pwd'
. It is good practice not to send the original cleartext password in such a command, because it might be exposed in command logs, activity displays, and so on. Instead, use this function to convert the password to encrypted form before it is sent.The
passwd
anduser
arguments are the cleartext password, and the SQL name of the user it is for.algorithm
specifies the encryption algorithm to use to encrypt the password. Currently supported algorithms aremd5
andscram-sha-256
(on
andoff
are also accepted as aliases formd5
, for compatibility with older server versions). Note that support forscram-sha-256
was introduced in Postgres Pro version 10, and will not work correctly with older server versions. Ifalgorithm
isNULL
, this function will query the server for the current value of the password_encryption setting. That can block, and will fail if the current transaction is aborted, or if the connection is busy executing another query. If you wish to use the default algorithm for the server but want to avoid blocking, querypassword_encryption
yourself before callingPQencryptPasswordConn
, and pass that value as thealgorithm
.The return value is a string allocated by
malloc
. The caller can assume the string doesn't contain any special characters that would require escaping. UsePQfreemem
to free the result when done with it. On error, returnsNULL
, and a suitable message is stored in the connection object.PQchangePassword
#Changes a Postgres Pro password.
PGresult *PQchangePassword(PGconn *conn, const char *user, const char *passwd);
This function uses
PQencryptPasswordConn
to build and execute the commandALTER USER ... PASSWORD '...'
, thereby changing the user's password. It exists for the same reason asPQencryptPasswordConn
, but is more convenient as it both builds and runs the command for you.PQencryptPasswordConn
is passed aNULL
for the algorithm argument, hence encryption is done according to the server's password_encryption setting.The
user
andpasswd
arguments are the SQL name of the target user, and the new cleartext password.Returns a
PGresult
pointer representing the result of theALTER USER
command, or a null pointer if the routine failed before issuing any command. ThePQresultStatus
function should be called to check the return value for any errors (including the value of a null pointer, in which case it will returnPGRES_FATAL_ERROR
). UsePQerrorMessage
to get more information about such errors.PQencryptPassword
#Prepares the md5-encrypted form of a Postgres Pro password.
char *PQencryptPassword(const char *passwd, const char *user);
PQencryptPassword
is an older, deprecated version ofPQencryptPasswordConn
. The difference is thatPQencryptPassword
does not require a connection object, andmd5
is always used as the encryption algorithm.PQmakeEmptyPGresult
#Constructs an empty
PGresult
object with the given status.PGresult *PQmakeEmptyPGresult(PGconn *conn, ExecStatusType status);
This is libpq's internal function to allocate and initialize an empty
PGresult
object. This function returnsNULL
if memory could not be allocated. It is exported because some applications find it useful to generate result objects (particularly objects with error status) themselves. Ifconn
is not null andstatus
indicates an error, the current error message of the specified connection is copied into thePGresult
. Also, ifconn
is not null, any event procedures registered in the connection are copied into thePGresult
. (They do not getPGEVT_RESULTCREATE
calls, but seePQfireResultCreateEvents
.) Note thatPQclear
should eventually be called on the object, just as with aPGresult
returned by libpq itself.PQfireResultCreateEvents
#Fires a
PGEVT_RESULTCREATE
event (see Section 34.14) for each event procedure registered in thePGresult
object. Returns non-zero for success, zero if any event procedure fails.int PQfireResultCreateEvents(PGconn *conn, PGresult *res);
The
conn
argument is passed through to event procedures but not used directly. It can beNULL
if the event procedures won't use it.Event procedures that have already received a
PGEVT_RESULTCREATE
orPGEVT_RESULTCOPY
event for this object are not fired again.The main reason that this function is separate from
PQmakeEmptyPGresult
is that it is often appropriate to create aPGresult
and fill it with data before invoking the event procedures.PQcopyResult
#Makes a copy of a
PGresult
object. The copy is not linked to the source result in any way andPQclear
must be called when the copy is no longer needed. If the function fails,NULL
is returned.PGresult *PQcopyResult(const PGresult *src, int flags);
This is not intended to make an exact copy. The returned result is always put into
PGRES_TUPLES_OK
status, and does not copy any error message in the source. (It does copy the command status string, however.) Theflags
argument determines what else is copied. It is a bitwise OR of several flags.PG_COPYRES_ATTRS
specifies copying the source result's attributes (column definitions).PG_COPYRES_TUPLES
specifies copying the source result's tuples. (This implies copying the attributes, too.)PG_COPYRES_NOTICEHOOKS
specifies copying the source result's notify hooks.PG_COPYRES_EVENTS
specifies copying the source result's events. (But any instance data associated with the source is not copied.) The event procedures receivePGEVT_RESULTCOPY
events.PQsetResultAttrs
#Sets the attributes of a
PGresult
object.int PQsetResultAttrs(PGresult *res, int numAttributes, PGresAttDesc *attDescs);
The provided
attDescs
are copied into the result. If theattDescs
pointer isNULL
ornumAttributes
is less than one, the request is ignored and the function succeeds. Ifres
already contains attributes, the function will fail. If the function fails, the return value is zero. If the function succeeds, the return value is non-zero.PQsetvalue
#Sets a tuple field value of a
PGresult
object.int PQsetvalue(PGresult *res, int tup_num, int field_num, char *value, int len);
The function will automatically grow the result's internal tuples array as needed. However, the
tup_num
argument must be less than or equal toPQntuples
, meaning this function can only grow the tuples array one tuple at a time. But any field of any existing tuple can be modified in any order. If a value atfield_num
already exists, it will be overwritten. Iflen
is -1 orvalue
isNULL
, the field value will be set to an SQL null value. Thevalue
is copied into the result's private storage, thus is no longer needed after the function returns. If the function fails, the return value is zero. If the function succeeds, the return value is non-zero.PQresultAlloc
#Allocate subsidiary storage for a
PGresult
object.void *PQresultAlloc(PGresult *res, size_t nBytes);
Any memory allocated with this function will be freed when
res
is cleared. If the function fails, the return value isNULL
. The result is guaranteed to be adequately aligned for any type of data, just as formalloc
.PQresultMemorySize
#Retrieves the number of bytes allocated for a
PGresult
object.size_t PQresultMemorySize(const PGresult *res);
This value is the sum of all
malloc
requests associated with thePGresult
object, that is, all the memory that will be freed byPQclear
. This information can be useful for managing memory consumption.PQlibVersion
#Return the version of libpq that is being used.
int PQlibVersion(void);
The result of this function can be used to determine, at run time, whether specific functionality is available in the currently loaded version of libpq. The function can be used, for example, to determine which connection options are available in
PQconnectdb
.The result is formed by multiplying the library's major version number by 10000 and adding the minor version number. For example, version 10.1 will be returned as 100001, and version 11.0 will be returned as 110000.
Prior to major version 10, Postgres Pro used three-part version numbers in which the first two parts together represented the major version. For those versions,
PQlibVersion
uses two digits for each part; for example version 9.1.5 will be returned as 90105, and version 9.2.0 will be returned as 90200.Therefore, for purposes of determining feature compatibility, applications should divide the result of
PQlibVersion
by 100 not 10000 to determine a logical major version number. In all release series, only the last two digits differ between minor releases (bug-fix releases).Note
This function appeared in PostgreSQL version 9.1, so it cannot be used to detect required functionality in earlier versions, since calling it will create a link dependency on version 9.1 or later.
PQgetCurrentTimeUSec
#Retrieves the current time, expressed as the number of microseconds since the Unix epoch (that is,
time_t
times 1 million).pg_usec_time_t PQgetCurrentTimeUSec(void);
This is primarily useful for calculating timeout values to use with
PQsocketPoll
.