I'm converting a database from MS-Access to a Postgres (7.2.3) backend but will be
keeping the Access front end and communicate via ODBC. Unfortunately the scope of work
does not allow me to alter attribute names within the tables and several attribute names
are longer than the default Postgres supported 32 chars as defined in
src/include/postgres_ext.h:NAMEDATALEN. There is also a note in this header that databases
with different NAMEDATALEN's cannot interoperate. This seems to imply that a single
database server can candle different databases with different NAMEDATALEN's - raising some
questions to me. To get things going I made the change to 52 chars and rebuilt Postgres -
everything seems to be working.
However, now that it is time to deploy to finished system to my client, they (and I)
have a STRONG preference not to have to deploy a custom build of Postgres if it can be
avoided. This gets to the afore mentioned questions raised by the comment in
postgres_ext.h. Can I somehow specify a NAMEDATALAN > 32 when creating a database under a
server which does not have a modified NAMEDATALEN? Would simply altering the size of the
attname attribute of the pg_attribute table to 52 accomplish the same effect for me?
I think you see where I'm going on this. I'd appreciate any advice on what it the
best way to handle this situation with as little impact on my client's Postgres server as
possible.
many thanx,
Ben Scherrey
