Re: I propose killing PL/Tcl's "modules" infrastructure

On 02/25/2017 01:14 PM, Tom Lane wrote:
> Over in
> https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/alpine.DEB.2.11.1702251701030.3920@Sandal.Woodpecker
> it's pointed out that pltcl_loadmod was never updated for the switch
> to standard_conforming_strings (and the patch proposed there doesn't
> begin to cover all the places that would need fixed for that).
>
> This means that the "modules" functionality is entirely broken in any
> installation that's got standard_conforming_strings turned on, which has
> been the default since 9.1 and was possible long before that.
>
> The fact that nobody has noticed seems to me to be clear proof that no one
> is using this feature in the field.
>
> Now, we could try to fix this bug, and add the regression test coverage
> that the code clearly lacks, and upgrade the documentation about it from
> its currently very sad state. But I think the right answer is just to
> remove the feature altogether. It's evidently not being used, and it's
> kind of insecure by design, and it would not be that hard for someone
> to provide equivalent functionality entirely in userland if they really
> wanted it.
>
> Comments?
>
>

In PLv8 we added a parameter plv8.start_proc that names a parameterless
function that's executed when plv8 is first called in each session. It
can be used quite easily to implement something like a modules
infrastructure - in fact I have used it to good effect for exactly that.
Maybe something similar for pltcl would be a good thing.

cheers

andrew

--
Andrew Dunstan https://www.2ndQuadrant.com
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