Plperl return_next and bytea binary data?

Hi,

I'm trying to generate graphics dynamically from a plperl function, like this:

------------------------------------
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION test_gd
(
IN a int4,
IN b int4,

OUT val int4,
OUT image bytea
)
RETURNS SETOF record
AS

$$
use GD;

$im = new GD::Image(100,100);
$white = $im->colorAllocate(255,255,255);
$black = $im->colorAllocate(0,0,0);
$im->transparent($white);
$im->interlaced('false');
$im->line(0,0,150,150,gdBrushed);
$im->rectangle(10,10,89,89,$black);
$im->arc(50,50,95,75,0,360,$black);
$im->fill(50,50,$black);

return_next
(
{
val => $_[0] * $_[1],
image => $im->gif()
}
);

return undef;
$$

LANGUAGE 'plperlu';
------------------------------------

The image, in hexadecimal, is:

------------------------------------
00000000:47 49 46 38 39 61 64 00 64 00 80 00 00 ff ff ff GIF89ad.d.€..ÿÿÿ
00000010:00 00 00 21 f9 04 01 00 00 00 00 2c 00 00 00 00 ...!ù......,....
00000020:64 00 64 00 00 02 fe 84 8f a9 cb ed 0f a3 9c b4 d.d...þ„©Ëí.£œ´
00000030:da 8b b3 de bc fb 0f 86 e2 48 96 e6 89 a6 ea ca Ú‹³Þ¼û.†âH–扦êÊ
00000040:b6 ee 0b 63 c1 4c d7 f6 8d e7 fa ce f7 b3 1c 2b ¶î.cÁL×öçúÎ÷³.+
00000050:05 80 c1 d1 f0 72 14 f9 7e 4a 22 67 e9 eb 24 2b .€ÁÑðr.ù~J"géë$+
00000060:53 24 f4 5a a5 3a a9 d8 2e 0d b9 8d 78 c7 37 4a S$ôZ¥:©Ø..¹xÇ7J
00000070:56 72 66 90 d7 65 71 58 cd 8e db 20 69 3a 5d 8e Vrf×eqXÍŽÛ i:]Ž
00000080:ff 3a ea 0f 7e fe 5f d3 c0 b7 07 07 68 c8 94 30 ÿ:ê.~þ_ÓÀ·..hÈ”0
00000090:28 b8 70 d8 88 78 a0 a8 96 e8 48 39 15 c9 88 50 (¸p؈x ¨–èH9.ɈP
000000a0:a9 09 e9 a4 e9 69 70 a9 70 e4 49 0a 10 9a 68 4a ©.é¤éip©päI..šhJ
000000b0:aa 0a a4 ba 6a d5 5a fa 0a fb c9 35 fb 79 9a 6a ª.¤ºjÕZú.ûÉ5ûyšj
000000c0:bb 79 3a a4 bb 69 8a 06 ea 4b c9 d9 37 3a ec 08 »y:¤»iŠ.êKÉÙ7:ì.
000000d0:39 98 84 9c 5c bc 28 dc 6c 98 49 a8 2c 0d 88 2a 9˜„œ\¼(Ül˜I¨,.ˆ*
000000e0:69 7d 9d 97 2d 6a c9 fd 37 89 99 19 de ed 4d 5d i}—-jÉý7‰™.ÞíM]
000000f0:6e 2e 27 4a be bd be d6 3e ae 0e 1f 3f ff fc 5e n.'J¾½¾Ö>®..?ÿü^
00000100:ef e5 0e fa ad 4f c6 0f d8 a4 7f 63 02 66 21 08 ïå.ú­OÆ.ؤc.f!.
00000110:50 1e be 68 08 b1 18 f4 d7 f0 ca c3 81 11 a1 4c P.¾h.±.ô×ðÊÁ.¡L
00000120:a4 57 31 8a c2 b1 7e 14 33 f6 30 58 c5 a3 c5 7b ¤W1ŠÂ±~.3ö0XÅ£Å{
00000130:0b 45 2e d9 58 d2 e4 47 74 29 55 ee 40 29 0c a3 .E.ÙXÒäGt)Uî@).£
00000140:cb 36 ca b4 31 9c 49 93 23 3f 9c 3a 58 7a e3 99 Ë6Ê´1œI“#?œ:Xzã™
00000150:23 1d b4 5c 40 03 2d fc 76 b3 28 33 45 c7 94 ea #(dot)´\(at)(dot)-üv³(3EÇ”ê
00000160:11 68 c7 a9 51 5e 52 bf e0 aa 6a d5 02 d6 47 13 .hÇ©Q^R¿àªjÕ.ÖG.
00000170:b6 b2 92 fa d5 29 11 a5 50 b5 24 35 a9 d3 ec d9 ¶²’úÕ).¥Pµ$5©ÓìÙ
00000180:8c 47 83 c9 ac 28 54 ed db 7f 30 dd 42 24 18 b0 ŒGƒÉ¬(TíÛ0ÝB$.°
00000190:eb 1e ba 36 e5 16 0a d7 e7 0d 23 c0 81 c1 a0 69 ë.º6å..×ç.#ÀÁ i
000001a0:66 d7 ef 1d 5b 66 04 8b 89 a5 38 b1 2c 6c 19 70 f×ï.[f.‹‰¥8±,l.p
000001b0:b5 9d 6c 6f 83 e5 b4 20 46 86 d8 5c b6 c8 07 d0 µloƒå´ F†Ø\¶È.Ð
000001c0:5e 45 9b 3e 8d 3a b5 ea d5 ac 5b bb 7e 0d 3b b6 ^E›>:µêÕ¬[»~.;¶
000001d0:ec d9 b4 6b bb 2e 00 00 3b ìÙ´k»...;
------------------------------------

By sniffing the network, I could see that the image is not transferred completely to the client.

Only the first part is being transferred:

------------------------------------
00000000:47 49 46 38 39 61 64 GIF89ad
------------------------------------

The problem seems to come from the return_next, in conjunction with binary data:

------------------------------------
return_next
(
{
val => $_[0] * $_[1],
image => $im->gif()
}
);
------------------------------------

Doe anybody know how to solve that problem? When saving data to the hard disk, with GD and perl, examples show that you have to force the stream in binary mode, like this:

------------------------------------
open (MYOUTFILE, ">/tmp/outfile.gif") || die 'Cannot open output file';
binmode MYOUTFILE;
print MYOUTFILE $im->gif();
close MYOUTFILE;
------------------------------------

I tried, and it works...

Is there a trick in order to force binary mode with return_next too?

Thanks for your help!

----------------------------------
Philippe Lang, Ing. Dipl. EPFL
Attik System
rte de la Fonderie 2
1700 Fribourg
Switzerland
http://www.attiksystem.ch

Tel: +41 (26) 422 13 75
Fax: +41 (26) 422 13 76