Re: BUG #7709: psql \copy csv terminates with \. in quoted region

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: tgarnett(at)panjiva(dot)com
Cc: pgsql-bugs(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: BUG #7709: psql \copy csv terminates with \. in quoted region
Date: 2012-11-27 17:33:44
Message-ID: 24679.1354037624@sss.pgh.pa.us
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tgarnett(at)panjiva(dot)com writes:
> psql \copy terminates at \. by itself in a line even if the format is csv
> and the \. is inside a quoted region. This means that some values can't be
> round-tripped by psql \copy. Tested and the native postgresql COPY handles
> this case correctly.

Ugh. This seems like a rather fundamental oversight in the CSV feature.
The problem is that psql has no idea whether the copy is being done in
CSV mode or not --- and even if it did, it doesn't parse the data fully
enough to realize whether a \. line is inside quotes or not.

In the case of out-of-line data files, it might be reasonable to just
dispense with the check for \. altogether and always ship the whole file
to the backend; I think there's a \. check on the backend side. (Not
sure this is safe in V2 protocol, but I doubt anyone cares anymore
about that.)

In the case of in-line data in a script file, CSV mode seems a bit
broken in any case; there's no concept of a terminator in CSV, AFAIK.
So maybe we don't have to worry about that.

regards, tom lane

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