Re: Paths for C functions (was Re: Re: backend dies on 7.1.1 loading large datamodel.)

Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>

From: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>
To: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Cc: Robert Hentosh <hentosh@io.com>, <pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org>
Date: 2001-05-08T16:07:27Z
Lists: pgsql-bugs, pgsql-hackers
Tom Lane writes:

> In the long run I think we should abandon the notion that full path
> specifications are the preferred way to locate dynamic libraries.
> It would be a lot better for portability if C function libraries could
> be referred to like this:
>
> create function pltcl_call_handler() returns opaque
> 	as 'pltcl' language 'C';
>
> where the backend automatically assumes that a relative path is relative
> to $PGLIB.  I'd like to see the backend adding the file extension too,
> to avoid platform dependencies (".so" is not universal).

We could have a run-time parameter that sets a path where to look for
modules.  Eventually, we might also want to take a look at libtool's
libltdl, the portable interface to dynamic loading, which would do this
and a number of other things for us.

-- 
Peter Eisentraut   peter_e@gmx.net   http://funkturm.homeip.net/~peter