Error message with COMMIT/ROLLBACK within PL/pgSQL

Heikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@enterprisedb.com>

From: Heikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@enterprisedb.com>
To: PostgreSQL-development <pgsql-hackers@postgreSQL.org>
Date: 2010-10-28T10:47:28Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers

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This is not very user-friendly:

postgres=# do $$
begin
   COMMIT;
end;
$$;
ERROR:  SPI_execute_plan_with_paramlist failed executing query "COMMIT": 
SPI_ERROR_TRANSACTION
CONTEXT:  PL/pgSQL function "inline_code_block" line 2 at SQL statement

Clearly we don't support that, but seems like it would deserve a better 
error message.

Curiously, we *do* give a better error message if you try that with EXECUTE:

postgres=# do $$
begin
   EXECUTE 'COMMIT';
end;
$$;
ERROR:  cannot begin/end transactions in PL/pgSQL
HINT:  Use a BEGIN block with an EXCEPTION clause instead.
CONTEXT:  PL/pgSQL function "inline_code_block" line 2 at EXECUTE statement

Barring objections, I'll add the same error message to the non-execute 
codepath.

-- 
   Heikki Linnakangas
   EnterpriseDB   http://www.enterprisedb.com