> Problem is that when I call these particular functions from within
> plpgsql rather than through a single sql command the child never
> actually starts (or starts and then exits immediately).
Are you sure? I can't think of much that'd prevent a C function from
executing other than how you've declared the function (ie, is PgSQL
caching the results of the function?). Make sure you've declared it
as VOLATILE (or don't declare it anything and it'll default to
VOLATILE).
http://developer.postgresql.org/docs/postgres/sql-createfunction.html
-sc
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Sean Chittenden