Re: BUG #9202: C Functions crash database too easily - Mailing list pgsql-bugs

From David Johnston
Subject Re: BUG #9202: C Functions crash database too easily
Date
Msg-id 1392308670918-5791875.post@n5.nabble.com
Whole thread Raw
In response to BUG #9202: C Functions crash database too easily  (rotten@windfish.net)
Responses Re: BUG #9202: C Functions crash database too easily
List pgsql-bugs
rotten wrote
> While setting up a third party (commerical) provided C library functions
> I've observed PostgreSQL 9.3.2 to be very sensitive to simple typos.
>
> 1)  If you create the function with a different number of arguments than
> the
> C function expects, the create works just fine.  However, every time you
> do
> a select, the database chokes:

I would hope that the only typos you would be encountering in this use-case
are file-name typos which would correctly generate "file not found" errors.
Complain to the third-party that they are not making your installation easy
enough because they have not provided fully tested scripts for you to run to
setup their library - or ideally the capability to issue "CREATE EXTENSION".

As Tom said, sometimes the solutions are procedural/human in nature and not
something easily solved via technology; especially when portability is a
concern as it is in this project.

Not being a C programmer I cannot comment on how to improve usability in
these situations but the fact remains that as a developer you should be
testing these things in a controlled development environment; and as a user
you should expect it to work (and be provided tests to verify that) and also
to be able to install via file/extension name specification only.

David J.




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