Re: psql \l error

Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:

> SAKAIDA <sakaida(at)psn(dot)co(dot)jp> writes:
> > A_server : configure (in USA)
> > B_server : configure --enable--multibyte (in Japan)
>
> > By using the B_server's psql,
> >
> > prompt> psql -h A_server
> > ERROR: Multibyte support must be enable to use this function
>
(snip)
>
> Seems like it might be a good idea if the non-MULTIBYTE stub versions of
> pg_encoding_to_char() and friends were to return default values (eg,
> "SQL_ASCII") instead of erroring out. A MULTIBYTE version of psql
> really ought to be able to work with a non-MULTIBYTE server.

I think so, too.

> > postgres=# \l
> > ERROR: No such function 'pg_encoding_to_char' with the
> > specified attributes
>
> Hmm. This is happening because 7.0 psql tries to display the encoding
> of each database if psql was compiled with MULTIBYTE.
>
> Here you are evidently talking to a pre-7.0 server (both because
> a 7.0 server should have that function, even if the function
> refuses to work ;-)) and because a 7.0 server does not spell the
> 'No such function' error message quite that way.

Sorry, I have used a 6.5.3 as the A_server certainly. In the
case of a 7.0,

prompt> export PGCLIENTENCODING='SQL_ASCII'
prompt> psql -h A_server
postgres=# \l
ERROR: Multibyte support must be enable to use this function

>
(snip)
> This one is a little nastier. The only solution I could see that would
> guarantee backwards compatibility is for psql not to try to display the
> database encoding; that doesn't seem like a win. I think there are
> some other small incompatibilities between 7.0 psql and pre-7.0 servers
> anyway, so eliminating this one by dumbing down \l is probably not
> the way to proceed.
>
> So, I'd suggest fixing the first issue (so that 7.0 MULTIBYTE psql works
> with non-MULTIBYTE 7.0 server) but not trying to do anything about
> MULTIBYTE psql with a pre-7.0 server. Comments?

I consider that MULTIBYTE 7.0-psql must be able to access a
pre-7.0 server. I don't think that it is so difficult to realize
it between 6.5.x and 7.0.

Problems except for \l are \df/\dd which Hiroshi Inoue already
pointed out.

--
Regards,
SAKAIDA Masaaki -- Osaka, Japan