Re: Backward compatibility patch for numutils.c

On 7/4/2004 5:18 PM, Markus Wollny wrote:

> Hi!
>
> Can noone give me any advice on whether to use this backward compatibility patch or not? I'm not a PG-hacker, so some better educated opinions would be very welcome. Thank you!

7.2 is over 2 years old. 7.3 1.5 years. If you don't have the sourcecode
for those "hardwired" apps, then it seems to me that the vendor must
have lost the sourcecode as well. My advice: think about what happens if
you hit a really serious bug in that application where no workaround by
screwing with the DB system will help any more.

Jan

>
> Kind regards,
>
> Markus
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org on behalf of Markus Wollny
> Sent: Wed 6/30/2004 20:05
> To: pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
> Cc:
> Subject: [GENERAL] Backward compatibility patch for numutils.c
> Hi!
>
> We're using some "hardwired" apps which try to insert '' in INT-fields when what they really mean is NULL. 7.2 wasn't bothered by this behaviour, but 7.3 was and it broke some apps then. So Bruce had posted a patch for 7.3's /src/backend/utils/adt/numutils.c - I couldn't find the original posting when someone asked some time ago and I cannot find it now, however I have reposted his patch there: http://groups.google.de/groups?hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=2266D0630E43BB4290742247C89105750393D53E%40dozer.computec.de
>
> Now the relevant bit has slightly changed in 7.4.x and I wonder what else would be affected when applying the same thing here; I have made the same changes to the source of 7.4.3, resulting in the following diff:
>
> diff numutils.c.patched numutils.c.orig
> 69,74c69,74
> < else if (*s == 0)
> < {
> < /* 7.4.X workaround for broken apps */
> < elog(WARNING, "pg_atoi: zero-length string");
> < l = (long) 0;
> < }
> ---
>> if (*s == 0)
>> ereport(ERROR,
>> (errcode(ERRCODE_INVALID_TEXT_REPRESENTATION),
>> errmsg("invalid input syntax for integer: \"%s\"",
>> s)));
>>
>
> It compiles fine, but I don't know if I'd shoot myself in the foot when actually using and trusting the thus patched 7.4.3 in a production environment. Any thoughts? Or can I put my mind at rest regardless? I know it's breaking the SQL-specs, but I'd rather have that than broken apps...
>
> Kind regards
>
> Markus Wollny
>
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