Re: OCTET_LENGTH is wrong

From: Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: Hannu Krosing <hannu(at)tm(dot)ee>
Cc: lockhart(at)fourpalms(dot)org, Karel Zak <zakkr(at)zf(dot)jcu(dot)cz>, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>, PostgreSQL Development <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: OCTET_LENGTH is wrong
Date: 2001-11-21 01:10:51
Message-ID: 200111210110.fAL1Apm02606@candle.pha.pa.us
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> >>>>There have been three ideas of what octet_length() sould return:
> >>>> 1) compressed on-disk storage length
> >>>> 2) byte length in server-side encoding
> >>>> 3) byte length in client-side encoding
> >>>>
> >>...
> >>
> >>>>The open question is whether we should be doing #3.
> >>>>
> >>There is no question in my mind that (3) must be the result of
> >>octet_length(). Any of the other options may give an interesting result,
> >>but of no practical use to a client trying to retrieve data. And
> >>everything is a client!
> >>
> >
> >Also added to TODO:
> >
> > * Make octet_length_client the same as octet_length()
> >
> Will this break backward compatibility ?

Well, sort of. 7.1 had text returning compressed length. We changed
that to server-side encoding in 7.2. Changing that to client encoding
will break clients, but what meaningful thing could they do with the
server-side encoding?

--
Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us
pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us | (610) 853-3000
+ If your life is a hard drive, | 830 Blythe Avenue
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