Re: Problem returning strings with pgsql 8.3.x

Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog(at)svana(dot)org> writes:
> On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 11:23:17PM -0600, Josh Tolley wrote:
>> SPI_push();
>> retval =
>> InputFunctionCall(&flinfo, lolVarGetString(returnVal, true),
>> resultTypeIOParam, -1);
>> SPI_pop();

> Won't this cause the return value to be allocated inside a new memory
> block which gets freeds at the SPI_pop?

The SPI_pop in itself is harmless ... the problem is the SPI_finish
further down, which will release all simple palloc's done within the
SPI function context. What he needs is something comparable to this bit
in plpgsql:

/*
* If the function's return type isn't by value, copy the value
* into upper executor memory context.
*/
if (!fcinfo->isnull && !func->fn_retbyval)
{
Size len;
void *tmp;

len = datumGetSize(estate.retval, false, func->fn_rettyplen);
tmp = SPI_palloc(len);
memcpy(tmp, DatumGetPointer(estate.retval), len);
estate.retval = PointerGetDatum(tmp);
}

ie, push the data into something allocated with SPI_palloc().

I would bet large amounts of money that the problem is not "new in
8.3.0", either. Perhaps Josh was not testing in an --enable-cassert
(CLOBBER_FREED_MEMORY) build before.

regards, tom lane