Horton

Re: Bug in pg_describe_object

Joel Jacobson <joel@gluefinance.com>

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From: Joel Jacobson <joel@gluefinance.com>
To: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Cc: Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>, Andreas Karlsson <andreas@proxel.se>, Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>, Magnus Hagander <magnus@hagander.net>, Dimitri Fontaine <dimitri@2ndquadrant.fr>, Jim Nasby <jim@nasby.net>, Herrera Alvaro <alvherre@commandprompt.com>, pgsql-hackers Hackers <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Date: 2011-01-11T07:34:46Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers

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  1. Add pg_describe_object function

2011/1/11 Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>:
> It would make dependency error messages significantly longer and less
> readable.  Quite aside from the point at hand here, we elide schema
> names in many cases (and it looks like there are some code paths where
> getObjectDescription never bothers to print them at all).  Another issue
> that might make it interesting to try to use the output for purposes
> other than human-readable descriptions is that we localize all the
> phrases involved.
>
> My point is that this isn't a bug fix, it's more like moving the
> goalposts on what getObjectDescription is supposed to do.  And I'm not
> even very sure where they're being moved to.  I haven't seen a
> specification for an intended use of pg_describe_object for which its
> existing behavior would be unsatisfactory.

Thanks for some good arguments. I now agree with you it would be a bit
counter productive to change the existing pg_describe_object.
Due to the localization of the phrases and the lack of mandatory
namespace inclusion, you lose the comparison ability anyway.

I instead propose we introduce a new function named
pg_get_object_unique_identifier( classid oid, objid oid, objsubid
integer ) returns text.

The name would make sense since we already have a
pg_get_function_identity_arguments( func_oid ), for a similar purpose
but solely for functions.

-- 
Best regards,

Joel Jacobson
Glue Finance