Re: Re: COPY BINARY file format proposal - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Tom Lane
Subject Re: Re: COPY BINARY file format proposal
Date
Msg-id 8159.976683382@sss.pgh.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: Re: COPY BINARY file format proposal  (ncm@zembu.com (Nathan Myers))
List pgsql-hackers
ncm@zembu.com (Nathan Myers) writes:
> I don't know if you get the point of the fixed-size comment field.  
> The idea was that a comment could be poked into an existing COPY 
> image, after it was written.

Yes, I did get the point ...

> A variable-size comment field in an
> already-written image might leave no space to poke in anything.  A 
> variable-size comment field with a required minimum size would 
> satisfy both needs, at some cost in complexity.  

This strikes me as a perfect argument for a variable-size field.
If you want to leave N bytes for a future poked-in comment, you do that.
If you don't, then not.  Leaving 128 bytes (or any other frozen-by-the-
file-format number) is guaranteed to satisfy nobody.
        regards, tom lane


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