BUG #14754: ecpg SQL parsing error

The following bug has been logged on the website:

Bug reference: 14754
Logged by: Richard Zuber
Email address: zuberre(at)gmail(dot)com
PostgreSQL version: 9.5.7
Operating system: CentOS 7.3.1611
Description:

Hello,

I’ve been using ecpg as part of my automated test framework to ensure my
various SQL migrations have proper syntax. I believe I have run into an
error where ECPG is reporting a syntax error that does not in fact exist.

Assume the following table is defined (though this should not be relevant to
the issue):

CREATE TABLE foo
(
id SERIAL NOT NULL,
name text NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

There are two files to be fed into ecpg (version - ecpg (PostgreSQL 9.5.7)
4.11.0) :

--doesnt_work.sql
EXEC SQL WITH cte AS
(
INSERT INTO foo(name)
VALUES
('bar')
RETURNING id
)
SELECT * FROM foo;
--EOF

The output of “doesn’t_work.sql” is:

$ ecpg doesnt_work.sql
doesnt_work.sql:7: ERROR: syntax error at or near ")"
$ echo $?
3

Since this is a valid statement from a syntax perspective (ignoring what the
statement does), I would expect no error.

The following appears to work as expected:

--works.sql
EXEC SQL WITH cte AS
(
INSERT INTO foo(name)
VALUES
('bar')
)
SELECT * FROM foo;
--EOF

$ ecpg works.sql
$ echo $?
0

The difference between the two is the use of the “RETURNING” statement in
the CTE. I have reviewed section 33.5 of the manual. While I took note of
33.5.3 in the manual, this statement does not actually return a result set.
That said, I may be misinterpreting the documentation in this matter.

I have reviewed release notes from later versions of postgres as well as the
open TODOs, but have not seen anything that appears to relate to this
behavior.

I appreciate your attention,
Richard Zuber