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Re: hidden errors calling a volatile function inside a stable function

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Merlin Moncure wrote:
On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 6:21 AM, Sabin Coanda
<sabin.coanda@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi,

I have "PostgreSQL 8.2.4 on i686-pc-mingw32, compiled by GCC gcc.exe (GCC)
3.4.2 (mingw-special)" on Windows OS , but I experienced the same problem on
"PostgreSQL 8.3.5, compiled by Visual C++ build 1400" too.

I attach the demo database here, to be available to test according with the
following scenario.

I found in a STABLE function, for instance "TEST_0"(), it is not allowed to
use INSERT statement. Trying this will give me the error:
ERROR: INSERT is not allowed in a non-volatile function

Why did you lie when your declared your function stable? :-)

I suspect the point here is that PostgreSQL tries to stop you violating your claims about the function's stability by preventing DML operations. However, it doesn't also attempt to prevent invocation of volatile functions. When you annotate a function as STABLE you are making a guarantee to PostgreSQL that the function is stable, rather than telling PostgreSQL to force the function to behave as STABLE.

This is probably reasonable enough - after all, a volatile function could even be invoked via an ON SELECT ... DO INSTEAD rule that transforms a statement, so the function doesn't even know about it. It could also be invoked dynamically via EXECUTE, which would probably be tricky to trap. There are more issues than DML when it comes to STABLE functions, too.

I do wonder if making STABLE functions execute as if `SET transaction_read_only = 1' had been issued is possible/practical. Would that work, and would it provide a way to trap at least most unsafe operations without undue overhead?

--
Craig Ringer

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