all good points, thanks :)
On Sat, 19 Aug 2000, Tom Lane wrote:
> The Hermit Hacker <scrappy@hub.org> writes:
> >>>> I also added the function sslinfo() to get information about the SSL
> >>>> connection.
> >>
> >> That strikes me as a very bizarre way of doing things. Why not add an
> >> inquiry function to the libpq API, instead?
>
> > what's the difference between 'select sslinfo()' and 'select version()',
>
> Well, (1) backend version is not known directly to libpq; the backend
> *must* be queried in some fashion for that info. I suppose the SSL
> connection info is known equally well at both ends of the connection,
> so it seems bizarre to inquire of the backend information that would
> be available without any round-trip query.
>
> (2) Transport-level info should be available without having to deal with
> concerns like whether you have a half-issued query already, or are in
> abort transaction state and can't get the backend to execute a SELECT,
> etc. This is a confusion of protocol-stack levels; it's like asking
> the backend what the client's IP address is.
>
> (3) version() is a constant, more or less, but sslinfo() will vary
> depending on how you have connected. That bothers me, although I can't
> quite put my finger on the reason why.
>
> regards, tom lane
>
>
Marc G. Fournier ICQ#7615664 IRC Nick: Scrappy
Systems Administrator @ hub.org
primary: scrappy@hub.org secondary: scrappy@{freebsd|postgresql}.org
