Re: Proposal - asynchronous functions

On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 10:02 AM, David Fetter <david(at)fetter(dot)org> wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 04:17:48PM +0300, Sim Zacks wrote:
>> On 04/26/2011 03:15 PM, Merlin Moncure wrote:
>>
>> >On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 3:28 AM, Sim Zacks<sim(at)compulab(dot)co(dot)il>  wrote:
>> >>Asynchronous functions
>> >>
>> >>*Problem*
>> >>Postgresql does not have support for asynchronous function calls.
>> >Well, there is asynchronous support from the client of course.  Thus
>> >you can set up a asynchronous call back to the database with dblink.
>> >There is some discussion about formalizing this feature -- you might
>> >want to read up on autonomous transactions and how they might be used
>> >to do what you are proposing.
>> >
>> >merlin
>> I am looking for specifically server support and not client support.
>> Part of the proposal is that if the client goes away, it will still
>> continue to finish.
>
> This is exactly autonomous transactions.  Please read this thread to
> see how.
>
> http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2008-01/msg00893.php

It's not the same thing at all. An autonomous function is (or appears
to be) two simultaneous toplevel transactions within the same backend.
This is a request for an *asynchronous* function, which would run
concurrently with foreground processing.

--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company