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<chapter id="pltcl">
<title>PL/Tcl - Tcl Procedural Language</title>
<indexterm zone="pltcl">
<primary>PL/Tcl</primary>
</indexterm>
<indexterm zone="pltcl">
<primary>Tcl</primary>
</indexterm>
<para>
PL/Tcl is a loadable procedural language for the
<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> database system
that enables the Tcl language to be used to write functions and
trigger procedures.
</para>
<para>
This package was originally written by Jan Wieck.
</para>
<!-- **** PL/Tcl overview **** -->
<sect1 id="pltcl-overview">
<title>Overview</title>
<para>
PL/Tcl offers most of the capabilities a function
writer has in the C language, except for some restrictions.
</para>
<para>
The good restriction is that everything is executed in a safe
Tcl interpreter. In addition to the limited command set of safe Tcl, only
a few commands are available to access the database via SPI and to raise
messages via <function>elog()</>. There is no way to access internals of the
database backend or to gain OS-level access under the permissions of the
<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> user ID, as a C function can do.
Thus, any unprivileged database user may be
permitted to use this language.
</para>
<para>
The other, implementation restriction is that Tcl procedures cannot
be used to create input/output functions for new data types.
</para>
<para>
Sometimes it is desirable to write Tcl functions that are not restricted
to safe Tcl --- for example, one might want a Tcl function that sends
mail. To handle these cases, there is a variant of PL/Tcl called PL/TclU
(for untrusted Tcl). This is the exact same language except that a full
Tcl interpreter is used. <emphasis>If PL/TclU is used, it must be
installed as an untrusted procedural language</emphasis> so that only
database superusers can create functions in it. The writer of a PL/TclU
function must take care that the function cannot be used to do anything
unwanted, since it will be able to do anything that could be done by
a user logged in as the database administrator.
</para>
<para>
The shared object for the PL/Tcl and PL/TclU call handlers is
automatically built and installed in the
<productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
library directory if Tcl/Tk support is specified
in the configuration step of the installation procedure. To install
PL/Tcl and/or PL/TclU in a particular database, use the
<filename>createlang</filename> script, for example
<literal>createlang pltcl <replaceable>dbname</></literal> or
<literal>createlang pltclu <replaceable>dbname</></literal>.
</para>
</sect1>
<!-- **** PL/Tcl description **** -->
<sect1 id="pltcl-description">
<title>Description</title>
<sect2>
<title>PL/Tcl Functions and Arguments</title>
<para>
To create a function in the PL/Tcl language, use the standard syntax
<programlisting>
CREATE FUNCTION <replaceable>funcname</replaceable> (<replaceable>argument-types</replaceable>) RETURNS <replaceable>return-type</replaceable> AS '
# PL/Tcl function body
' LANGUAGE 'pltcl';
</programlisting>
PL/TclU is the same, except that the language should be specified as
<literal>'pltclu'</>.
</para>
<para>
The body of the function is simply a piece of Tcl script.
When the function is called, the argument values are passed as
variables <literal>$1</literal> ... <literal>$n</literal> to the
Tcl script. The result is returned
from the Tcl code in the usual way, with a <literal>return</literal>
statement. For example, a function
returning the greater of two integer values could be defined as:
<programlisting>
CREATE FUNCTION tcl_max (integer, integer) RETURNS integer AS '
if {$1 > $2} {return $1}
return $2
' LANGUAGE 'pltcl' WITH (isStrict);
</programlisting>
Note the clause <literal>WITH (isStrict)</>, which saves us from
having to think about NULL input values: if a NULL is passed, the
function will not be called at all, but will just return a NULL
result automatically.
</para>
<para>
In a non-strict function,
if the actual value of an argument is NULL, the corresponding
<literal>$n</literal> variable will be set to an empty string.
To detect whether a particular argument is NULL, use the function
<literal>argisnull</>. For example, suppose that we wanted <function>tcl_max</function>
with one null and one non-null argument to return the non-null
argument, rather than NULL:
<programlisting>
CREATE FUNCTION tcl_max (integer, integer) RETURNS integer AS '
if {[argisnull 1]} {
if {[argisnull 2]} { return_null }
return $2
}
if {[argisnull 2]} { return $1 }
if {$1 > $2} {return $1}
return $2
' LANGUAGE 'pltcl';
</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
As shown above,
to return a NULL value from a PL/Tcl function, execute
<literal>return_null</literal>. This can be done whether the
function is strict or not.
</para>
<para>
Composite-type arguments are passed to the procedure as Tcl arrays.
The element names of the array are the attribute names of the composite
type. If an attribute in the passed row
has the NULL value, it will not appear in the array! Here is
an example that defines the overpaid_2 function (as found in the
older <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> documentation) in PL/Tcl:
<programlisting>
CREATE FUNCTION overpaid_2 (EMP) RETURNS bool AS '
if {200000.0 < $1(salary)} {
return "t"
}
if {$1(age) < 30 && 100000.0 < $1(salary)} {
return "t"
}
return "f"
' LANGUAGE 'pltcl';
</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
There is not currently any support for returning a composite-type
result value.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Data Values in PL/Tcl</title>
<para>
The argument values supplied to a PL/Tcl function's script are simply
the input arguments converted to text form (just as if they had been
displayed by a SELECT statement). Conversely, the <literal>return</>
command will accept any string that is acceptable input format for
the function's declared return type. So, the PL/Tcl programmer can
manipulate data values as if they were just text.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Global Data in PL/Tcl</title>
<para>
Sometimes it
is useful to have some global status data that is held between two
calls to a procedure or is shared between different procedures.
This is easily done since
all PL/Tcl procedures executed in one backend share the same
safe Tcl interpreter. So, any global Tcl variable is accessible to
all PL/Tcl procedure calls, and will persist for the duration of the
SQL client connection. (Note that PL/TclU functions likewise share
global data, but they are in a different Tcl interpreter and cannot
communicate with PL/Tcl functions.)
</para>
<para>
To help protect PL/Tcl procedures from unintentionally interfering
with each other, a global
array is made available to each procedure via the <function>upvar</>
command. The global name of this variable is the procedure's internal
name and the local name is <literal>GD</>. It is recommended that
<literal>GD</> be used
for private status data of a procedure. Use regular Tcl global variables
only for values that you specifically intend to be shared among multiple
procedures.
</para>
<para>
An example of using <literal>GD</> appears in the
<function>spi_execp</function> example below.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Database Access from PL/Tcl</title>
<para>
The following commands are available to access the database from
the body of a PL/Tcl procedure:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><function>spi_exec</function> <literal>?-count <replaceable>n</replaceable>? ?-array <replaceable>name</replaceable>? <replaceable>query</replaceable> ?<replaceable>loop-body</replaceable>?</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Execute an SQL query given as a string. An error in the query
causes an error to be raised. Otherwise, the command's return value
is the number of rows processed (selected, inserted, updated, or
deleted) by the query, or zero if the query is a utility
statement. In addition, if the query is a SELECT statement, the
values of the selected columns are placed in Tcl variables as
described below.
</para>
<para>
The optional <literal>-count</> value tells
<function>spi_exec</function> the maximum number of rows
to process in the query. The effect of this is comparable to
setting up the query as a cursor and then saying <literal>FETCH n</>.
</para>
<para>
If the query is a SELECT statement, the values of the SELECT's
result columns are placed into Tcl variables named after the columns.
If the <literal>-array</> option is given, the column values are
instead stored into the named associative array, with the SELECT
column names used as array indexes.
</para>
<para>
If the query is a SELECT statement and no <replaceable>loop-body</>
script is given, then only the first row of results are stored into
Tcl variables; remaining rows, if any, are ignored. No store occurs
if the
SELECT returns no rows (this case can be detected by checking the
result of <function>spi_exec</function>). For example,
<programlisting>
spi_exec "SELECT count(*) AS cnt FROM pg_proc"
</programlisting>
will set the Tcl variable <literal>$cnt</> to the number of rows in
the pg_proc system catalog.
</para>
<para>
If the optional <replaceable>loop-body</> argument is given, it is
a piece of Tcl script that is executed once for each row in the
SELECT result (note: <replaceable>loop-body</> is ignored if the given
query is not a SELECT). The values of the current row's fields
are stored into Tcl variables before each iteration. For example,
<programlisting>
spi_exec -array C "SELECT * FROM pg_class" {
elog DEBUG "have table $C(relname)"
}
</programlisting>
will print a DEBUG log message for every row of pg_class. This
feature works similarly to other Tcl looping constructs; in
particular <literal>continue</> and <literal>break</> work in the
usual way inside the loop body.
</para>
<para>
If a field of a SELECT result is NULL, the target
variable for it is <quote>unset</> rather than being set.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><function>spi_prepare</function> <replaceable>query</replaceable> <replaceable>typelist</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Prepares and saves a query plan for later execution. The saved plan
will be retained for the life of the current backend.
</para>
<para>
The query may use <firstterm>arguments</>, which are placeholders for
values to be supplied whenever the plan is actually executed.
In the query string, refer to arguments
by the symbols <literal>$1</literal> ... <literal>$n</literal>.
If the query uses arguments, the names of the argument types
must be given as a Tcl list. (Write an empty list for
<replaceable>typelist</replaceable> if no arguments are used.)
Presently, the argument types must be identified by the internal
type names shown in pg_type; for example <literal>int4</> not
<literal>integer</>.
</para>
<para>
The return value from <function>spi_prepare</function> is a query ID
to be used in subsequent calls to <function>spi_execp</function>. See
<function>spi_execp</function> for an example.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><function>spi_execp</> <literal>?-count <replaceable>n</replaceable>? ?-array <replaceable>name</replaceable>? ?-nulls <replaceable>string</replaceable>? <replaceable>queryid</replaceable> ?<replaceable>value-list</replaceable>? ?<replaceable>loop-body</replaceable>?</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Execute a query previously prepared with <function>spi_prepare</>.
<replaceable>queryid</replaceable> is the ID returned by
<function>spi_prepare</>. If the query references arguments,
a <replaceable>value-list</replaceable> must be supplied: this
is a Tcl list of actual values for the arguments. This must be
the same length as the argument type list previously given to
<function>spi_prepare</>. Omit <replaceable>value-list</replaceable>
if the query has no arguments.
</para>
<para>
The optional value for <literal>-nulls</> is a string of spaces and
<literal>'n'</> characters telling <function>spi_execp</function>
which of the arguments are NULLs. If given, it must have exactly the
same length as the <replaceable>value-list</replaceable>. If it
is not given, all the argument values are non-NULL.
</para>
<para>
Except for the way in which the query and its arguments are specified,
<function>spi_execp</> works just like <function>spi_exec</>.
The <literal>-count</>, <literal>-array</>, and
<replaceable>loop-body</replaceable> options are the same,
and so is the result value.
</para>
<para>
Here's an example of a PL/Tcl function using a prepared plan:
<programlisting>
CREATE FUNCTION t1_count(integer, integer) RETURNS integer AS '
if {![ info exists GD(plan) ]} {
# prepare the saved plan on the first call
set GD(plan) [ spi_prepare \\
"SELECT count(*) AS cnt FROM t1 WHERE num >= \\$1 AND num <= \\$2" \\
[ list int4 int4 ] ]
}
spi_execp -count 1 $GD(plan) [ list $1 $2 ]
return $cnt
' LANGUAGE 'pltcl';
</programlisting>
Note that each backslash that Tcl should see must be doubled when
we type in the function, since the main parser processes
backslashes too in CREATE FUNCTION. We need backslashes inside
the query string given to <function>spi_prepare</> to ensure that
the <literal>$n</> markers will be passed through to
<function>spi_prepare</> as-is, and not
replaced by Tcl variable substitution.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<indexterm>
<primary>spi_lastoid</primary>
</indexterm>
<term><function>spi_lastoid</></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Returns the OID of the row inserted by the last
<function>spi_exec</>'d or <function>spi_execp</>'d query,
if that query was a single-row INSERT. (If not, you get zero.)
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><function>quote</> <replaceable>string</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Duplicates all occurrences of single quote and backslash characters
in the given string. This may be used to safely quote strings
that are to be inserted into SQL queries given
to <function>spi_exec</function> or
<function>spi_prepare</function>.
For example, think about a query string like
<programlisting>
"SELECT '$val' AS ret"
</programlisting>
where the Tcl variable val actually contains
<literal>doesn't</literal>. This would result
in the final query string
<programlisting>
SELECT 'doesn't' AS ret
</programlisting>
which would cause a parse error during
<function>spi_exec</function> or
<function>spi_prepare</function>.
The submitted query should contain
<programlisting>
SELECT 'doesn''t' AS ret
</programlisting>
which can be formed in PL/Tcl as
<programlisting>
"SELECT '[ quote $val ]' AS ret"
</programlisting>
One advantage of <function>spi_execp</function> is that you don't
have to quote argument values like this, since the arguments are never
parsed as part of an SQL query string.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<indexterm>
<primary>elog</primary>
</indexterm>
<term><function>elog</> <replaceable>level</replaceable> <replaceable>msg</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Emit a log or error message. Possible levels are
<literal>DEBUG</>, <literal>LOG</>, <literal>INFO</>,
<literal>NOTICE</>, <literal>WARNING</>, <literal>ERROR</>, and
<literal>FATAL</>. Most simply emit the given message just like
the <literal>elog</> backend C function. <literal>ERROR</>
raises an error condition: further execution of the function is
abandoned, and the current transaction is aborted.
<literal>FATAL</> aborts the transaction and causes the current
backend to shut down (there is probably no good reason to use
this error level in PL/Tcl functions, but it's provided for
completeness).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Trigger Procedures in PL/Tcl</title>
<indexterm>
<primary>triggers</primary>
<secondary>in PL/Tcl</secondary>
</indexterm>
<para>
Trigger procedures can be written in PL/Tcl. As is customary in
<productname>PostgreSQL</productname>, a procedure that's to be called
as a trigger must be declared as a function with no arguments
and a return type of <literal>opaque</>.
</para>
<para>
The information from the trigger manager is passed to the procedure body
in the following variables:
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="Parameter">$TG_name</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The name of the trigger from the CREATE TRIGGER statement.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="Parameter">$TG_relid</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The object ID of the table that caused the trigger procedure
to be invoked.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="Parameter">$TG_relatts</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
A Tcl list of the table field names, prefixed with an empty list
element. So looking up an element name in the list with Tcl's
<function>lsearch</> command returns the element's number starting
with 1 for the first column, the same way the fields are customarily
numbered in <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="Parameter">$TG_when</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The string <literal>BEFORE</> or <literal>AFTER</> depending on the
type of trigger call.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="Parameter">$TG_level</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The string <literal>ROW</> or <literal>STATEMENT</> depending on the
type of trigger call.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="Parameter">$TG_op</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The string <literal>INSERT</>, <literal>UPDATE</> or
<literal>DELETE</> depending on the type of trigger call.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="Parameter">$NEW</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
An associative array containing the values of the new table row for
INSERT/UPDATE actions, or empty for DELETE. The array is indexed
by field name. Fields that are NULL will not appear in the array!
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="Parameter">$OLD</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
An associative array containing the values of the old table row for
UPDATE/DELETE actions, or empty for INSERT. The array is indexed
by field name. Fields that are NULL will not appear in the array!
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="Parameter">$args</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
A Tcl list of the arguments to the procedure as given in the
CREATE TRIGGER statement. These arguments are also accessible as
<literal>$1</literal> ... <literal>$n</literal> in the procedure body.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</para>
<para>
The return value from a trigger procedure can be one of the strings
<literal>OK</> or <literal>SKIP</>, or a list as returned by the
<literal>array get</> Tcl command. If the return value is <literal>OK</>,
the operation (INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE) that fired the trigger will proceed
normally. <literal>SKIP</> tells the trigger manager to silently suppress
the operation for this row. If a list is returned, it tells PL/Tcl to
return a modified row to the trigger manager that will be inserted
instead of the one given in $NEW (this works for INSERT/UPDATE
only). Needless to say that all this is only meaningful when the trigger
is BEFORE and FOR EACH ROW; otherwise the return value is ignored.
</para>
<para>
Here's a little example trigger procedure that forces an integer value
in a table to keep track of the number of updates that are performed on the
row. For new rows inserted, the value is initialized to 0 and then
incremented on every update operation:
<programlisting>
CREATE FUNCTION trigfunc_modcount() RETURNS OPAQUE AS '
switch $TG_op {
INSERT {
set NEW($1) 0
}
UPDATE {
set NEW($1) $OLD($1)
incr NEW($1)
}
default {
return OK
}
}
return [array get NEW]
' LANGUAGE 'pltcl';
CREATE TABLE mytab (num integer, description text, modcnt integer);
CREATE TRIGGER trig_mytab_modcount BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE ON mytab
FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE trigfunc_modcount('modcnt');
</programlisting>
Notice that the trigger procedure itself does not know the column
name; that's supplied from the trigger arguments. This lets the
trigger procedure be re-used with different tables.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title> Modules and the <function>unknown</> command</title>
<para>
PL/Tcl has support for auto-loading Tcl code when used.
It recognizes a special table, <literal>pltcl_modules</>, which
is presumed to contain modules of Tcl code. If this table
exists, the module <literal>unknown</> is fetched from the table
and loaded into the Tcl interpreter immediately after creating
the interpreter.
</para>
<para>
While the <literal>unknown</> module could actually contain any
initialization script you need, it normally defines a Tcl
<quote>unknown</> procedure that is invoked whenever Tcl does
not recognize an invoked procedure name. PL/Tcl's standard version
of this procedure tries to find a module in <literal>pltcl_modules</>
that will define the required procedure. If one is found, it is
loaded into the interpreter, and then execution is allowed to
proceed with the originally attempted procedure call. A
secondary table <literal>pltcl_modfuncs</> provides an index of
which functions are defined by which modules, so that the lookup
is reasonably quick.
</para>
<para>
The <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> distribution includes
support scripts to maintain these tables:
<command>pltcl_loadmod</>, <command>pltcl_listmod</>,
<command>pltcl_delmod</>, as well as source for the standard
unknown module <filename>share/unknown.pltcl</>. This module
must be loaded
into each database initially to support the autoloading mechanism.
</para>
<para>
The tables <literal>pltcl_modules</> and <literal>pltcl_modfuncs</>
must be readable by all, but it is wise to make them owned and
writable only by the database administrator.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Tcl Procedure Names</title>
<para>
In <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>, one and the
same function name can be used for
different functions as long as the number of arguments or their types
differ. Tcl, however, requires all procedure names to be distinct.
PL/Tcl deals with this by making the internal Tcl procedure names contain
the object
ID of the procedure's pg_proc row as part of their name. Thus,
<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> functions with the same name
and different argument types will be different Tcl procedures too. This
is not normally a concern for a PL/Tcl programmer, but it might be visible
when debugging.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>
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