Thread: Latest ODBC Driver "unstable"
It looks like the latest build of the PostgreSQL ODBC driver has problems. I have an application on Windows in .NET that I have been developing for some time using the ODBC drivers. Until recently I used the packaged installer to install 7.3.2 version of the driver. This is very stable with no unexpected problems. Backend is PostgreSQL 7.4.3 on Fedora Core 2 Recently I installed the latest build (7.5.02) and immediately began to experience ramdom crashes in my ASP.NET applications and .NET Windows apps. Dropping back to the 7.3.2 build all the problems went away. I have done several tests ONLY changing the ODBC driver and the results are consistent. Initially it looks like random buffer overflows/memory scribbling problems. Occasionally I get error messages from the driver with random bits of text on the end of the message. In .NET the ODBC Driver reports errors with a title of "Postgresql %s %s". Either someone has done something recently with buffer copying or it is the result of going Unicode-build only. I am not doing anything with cursors, just straightforward connect, execute, fetch, disconnect stuff. .NET puts lots of capability calls and datatype query for resultset calls of course. Looking at ODBC trace output I see no bad behaviour. The driver just crashes and takes the program with it sometimes. I also transfer data from SQLServer to PostgreSQL using DTS and the postgres ODBC driver. Using build 7.3.2 I get no problems at all. Using build 7.5.02 I get reports from SQLServer (DTS) like "Critical Error" and "data exception" at random points during the transfers. Unfortunately I don't currently have the tools to debug the driver. I will supply any information that I can, but given that this is Windows, there ain't a lot. Given that 8.0 is trying to make it into Windows, an unstable ODBC driver is going to taint the excellent efforts of the server porting. Given also that there is no-one to fix these problems it may be better to revert to a tried and trusted stable version (7.3.2) until this can get looked into. Cheers, Gary.
> -----Original Message----- > From: pgsql-odbc-owner@postgresql.org > [mailto:pgsql-odbc-owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Gary Doades > Sent: 15 September 2004 19:40 > To: pgsql-odbc@postgresql.org > Subject: [ODBC] Latest ODBC Driver "unstable" > > Given that 8.0 is trying to make it into Windows, an unstable > ODBC driver is going to taint the excellent efforts of the > server porting. > > Given also that there is no-one to fix these problems it may > be better to revert to a tried and trusted stable version > (7.3.2) until this can get looked into. 07.03.0200 is the current stable version. Anything newer is a development snapshot and has never been advertised as anything else. Regards, Dave.
On 15 Sep 2004 at 21:00, Dave Page wrote: > > 07.03.0200 is the current stable version. Anything newer is a > development snapshot and has never been advertised as anything else. > > Regards, Dave. > That's fine, I understand that. It's just that 7.5.02 is being installed with the Windows binary installer along with 8.0 beta. If someone were available to process the problems then I would say let it be fixed along with the main beta cycle, but given your recent comments is that going to happen? All I was trying to say is that if no-one is currently available to fix the 7.5.02 problems then it may be better to just distribute the 7.3.2 build along with the Windows beta. At least folks new to PostgreSQL will only have to deal with one potential set of problems in the short term. There appears to be enough people to fix the backend/psql/pgadmin problems promptly. Once the beta for the main PostgreSQL is over then the process of tackling the ODBC driver can begin. Cheers, Gary.
> -----Original Message----- > From: pgsql-odbc-owner@postgresql.org > [mailto:pgsql-odbc-owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Gary Doades > Sent: 15 September 2004 21:18 > To: pgsql-odbc@postgresql.org > Subject: Re: [ODBC] Latest ODBC Driver "unstable" > > On 15 Sep 2004 at 21:00, Dave Page wrote: > > > > > 07.03.0200 is the current stable version. Anything newer is a > > development snapshot and has never been advertised as anything else. > > > > Regards, Dave. > > > > That's fine, I understand that. It's just that 7.5.02 is > being installed with the Windows binary installer along with > 8.0 beta. If someone were available to process the problems > then I would say let it be fixed along with the main beta > cycle, but given your recent comments is that going to happen? It's unlikely. On the plus side though, one of the reasons I'm busy is that it's me that's building the win32 installer atm. I'm currently shipping the version of the driver that happens to be on my machine, however it will be released with stable versions of *all* code when we go gold. > All I was trying to say is that if no-one is currently > available to fix the > 7.5.02 problems then it may be better to just distribute the > 7.3.2 build along with the Windows beta. At least folks new > to PostgreSQL will only have to deal with one potential set > of problems in the short term. There appears to be enough > people to fix the backend/psql/pgadmin problems promptly Yeah, well pgadmin is my project as well :-) In fact it's the reason why I originally got involved in the ODBC driver, and now have far less interest as we use libpq nowadays. I should stress though, that my involvement with psqlODBC has always been more on the management of releases and Gborg than the coding, so even if I did have more time, I wouldn't necessarily be much more help. Regards, Dave.
On 15 Sep 2004 at 21:41, Dave Page wrote: > It's unlikely. On the plus side though, one of the reasons I'm busy is > that it's me that's building the win32 installer atm. I'm currently > shipping the version of the driver that happens to be on my machine, > however it will be released with stable versions of *all* code when we > go gold. > Thanks, even if the problems with 7.5.02 are not solved in the short term at least a stable version is available. I too would like to work on the ODBC driver, but just don't have the time. I feel that with the upcoming Windows port that the ODBC driver is going to be in more demand than ever. With no OLEDB driver available, all the non-.NET Windows developer will have is ODBC. All those VB and Access people out there will certainly test the driver :-) In the long term I would like to see the ODBC driver use libpq. Looking at the current source it seems to be re-inventing the wheel for no real good reason. I'm sure the code would be far less complex using libpq. Cheers, Gary.