Asynchronous Command Processing
| PostgreSQL 9.3.16 Documentation | ||||
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The
PQexec
function is adequate for submitting
commands in normal, synchronous applications. It has a few
deficiencies, however, that can be of importance to some users:
-
PQexecwaits for the command to be completed. The application might have other work to do (such as maintaining a user interface), in which case it won't want to block waiting for the response. -
Since the execution of the client application is suspended while it waits for the result, it is hard for the application to decide that it would like to try to cancel the ongoing command. (It can be done from a signal handler, but not otherwise.)
-
PQexeccan return only one PGresult structure. If the submitted command string contains multiple SQL commands, all but the last PGresult are discarded byPQexec. -
PQexecalways collects the command's entire result, buffering it in a single PGresult . While this simplifies error-handling logic for the application, it can be impractical for results containing many rows.
Applications that do not like these limitations can instead use the
underlying functions that
PQexec
is built from:
PQsendQuery
and
PQgetResult
.
There are also
PQsendQueryParams
,
PQsendPrepare
,
PQsendQueryPrepared
,
PQsendDescribePrepared
, and
PQsendDescribePortal
,
which can be used with
PQgetResult
to duplicate
the functionality of
PQexecParams
,
PQprepare
,
PQexecPrepared
,
PQdescribePrepared
, and
PQdescribePortal
respectively.
-
PQsendQuery -
Submits a command to the server without waiting for the result(s). 1 is returned if the command was successfully dispatched and 0 if not (in which case, use
PQerrorMessageto get more information about the failure).int PQsendQuery(PGconn *conn, const char *command);
After successfully calling
PQsendQuery, callPQgetResultone or more times to obtain the results.PQsendQuerycannot be called again (on the same connection) untilPQgetResulthas returned a null pointer, indicating that the command is done. -
PQsendQueryParams -
Submits a command and separate parameters to the server without waiting for the result(s).
int PQsendQueryParams(PGconn *conn, const char *command, int nParams, const Oid *paramTypes, const char * const *paramValues, const int *paramLengths, const int *paramFormats, int resultFormat);This is equivalent to
PQsendQueryexcept that query parameters can be specified separately from the query string. The function's parameters are handled identically toPQexecParams. LikePQexecParams, it will not work on 2.0-protocol connections, and it allows only one command in the query string. -
PQsendPrepare -
Sends a request to create a prepared statement with the given parameters, without waiting for completion.
int PQsendPrepare(PGconn *conn, const char *stmtName, const char *query, int nParams, const Oid *paramTypes);This is an asynchronous version of
PQprepare: it returns 1 if it was able to dispatch the request, and 0 if not. After a successful call, callPQgetResultto determine whether the server successfully created the prepared statement. The function's parameters are handled identically toPQprepare. LikePQprepare, it will not work on 2.0-protocol connections. -
PQsendQueryPrepared -
Sends a request to execute a prepared statement with given parameters, without waiting for the result(s).
int PQsendQueryPrepared(PGconn *conn, const char *stmtName, int nParams, const char * const *paramValues, const int *paramLengths, const int *paramFormats, int resultFormat);This is similar to
PQsendQueryParams, but the command to be executed is specified by naming a previously-prepared statement, instead of giving a query string. The function's parameters are handled identically toPQexecPrepared. LikePQexecPrepared, it will not work on 2.0-protocol connections. -
PQsendDescribePrepared -
Submits a request to obtain information about the specified prepared statement, without waiting for completion.
int PQsendDescribePrepared(PGconn *conn, const char *stmtName);
This is an asynchronous version of
PQdescribePrepared: it returns 1 if it was able to dispatch the request, and 0 if not. After a successful call, callPQgetResultto obtain the results. The function's parameters are handled identically toPQdescribePrepared. LikePQdescribePrepared, it will not work on 2.0-protocol connections. -
PQsendDescribePortal -
Submits a request to obtain information about the specified portal, without waiting for completion.
int PQsendDescribePortal(PGconn *conn, const char *portalName);
This is an asynchronous version of
PQdescribePortal: it returns 1 if it was able to dispatch the request, and 0 if not. After a successful call, callPQgetResultto obtain the results. The function's parameters are handled identically toPQdescribePortal. LikePQdescribePortal, it will not work on 2.0-protocol connections. -
PQgetResult -
Waits for the next result from a prior
PQsendQuery,PQsendQueryParams,PQsendPrepare,PQsendQueryPrepared,PQsendDescribePrepared, orPQsendDescribePortalcall, and returns it. A null pointer is returned when the command is complete and there will be no more results.PGresult *PQgetResult(PGconn *conn);
PQgetResultmust be called repeatedly until it returns a null pointer, indicating that the command is done. (If called when no command is active,PQgetResultwill just return a null pointer at once.) Each non-null result fromPQgetResultshould be processed using the same PGresult accessor functions previously described. Don't forget to free each result object withPQclearwhen done with it. Note thatPQgetResultwill block only if a command is active and the necessary response data has not yet been read byPQconsumeInput.Note: Even when
PQresultStatusindicates a fatal error,PQgetResultshould be called until it returns a null pointer, to allow libpq to process the error information completely.
Using
PQsendQuery
and
PQgetResult
solves one of
PQexec
's problems: If a command string contains
multiple
SQL
commands, the results of those commands
can be obtained individually. (This allows a simple form of overlapped
processing, by the way: the client can be handling the results of one
command while the server is still working on later queries in the same
command string.)
Another frequently-desired feature that can be obtained with
PQsendQuery
and
PQgetResult
is retrieving large query results a row at a time. This is discussed
in
Section 31.5
.
By itself, calling
PQgetResult
will still cause the client to block until the server completes the
next
SQL
command. This can be avoided by proper
use of two more functions:
-
PQconsumeInput -
If input is available from the server, consume it.
int PQconsumeInput(PGconn *conn);
PQconsumeInputnormally returns 1 indicating "no error" , but returns 0 if there was some kind of trouble (in which casePQerrorMessagecan be consulted). Note that the result does not say whether any input data was actually collected. After callingPQconsumeInput, the application can checkPQisBusyand/orPQnotifiesto see if their state has changed.PQconsumeInputcan be called even if the application is not prepared to deal with a result or notification just yet. The function will read available data and save it in a buffer, thereby causing aselect()read-ready indication to go away. The application can thus usePQconsumeInputto clear theselect()condition immediately, and then examine the results at leisure. -
PQisBusy -
Returns 1 if a command is busy, that is,
PQgetResultwould block waiting for input. A 0 return indicates thatPQgetResultcan be called with assurance of not blocking.int PQisBusy(PGconn *conn);
PQisBusywill not itself attempt to read data from the server; thereforePQconsumeInputmust be invoked first, or the busy state will never end.
A typical application using these functions will have a main loop that
uses
select()
or
poll()
to wait for
all the conditions that it must respond to. One of the conditions
will be input available from the server, which in terms of
select()
means readable data on the file
descriptor identified by
PQsocket
. When the main
loop detects input ready, it should call
PQconsumeInput
to read the input. It can then
call
PQisBusy
, followed by
PQgetResult
if
PQisBusy
returns false (0). It can also call
PQnotifies
to detect
NOTIFY
messages (see
Section 31.8
).
A client that uses
PQsendQuery
/
PQgetResult
can also attempt to cancel a command that is still being processed
by the server; see
Section 31.6
. But regardless of
the return value of
PQcancel
, the application
must continue with the normal result-reading sequence using
PQgetResult
. A successful cancellation will
simply cause the command to terminate sooner than it would have
otherwise.
By using the functions described above, it is possible to avoid blocking while waiting for input from the database server. However, it is still possible that the application will block waiting to send output to the server. This is relatively uncommon but can happen if very long SQL commands or data values are sent. (It is much more probable if the application sends data via COPY IN , however.) To prevent this possibility and achieve completely nonblocking database operation, the following additional functions can be used.
-
PQsetnonblocking -
Sets the nonblocking status of the connection.
int PQsetnonblocking(PGconn *conn, int arg);
Sets the state of the connection to nonblocking if arg is 1, or blocking if arg is 0. Returns 0 if OK, -1 if error.
In the nonblocking state, calls to
PQsendQuery,PQputline,PQputnbytes, andPQendcopywill not block but instead return an error if they need to be called again.Note that
PQexecdoes not honor nonblocking mode; if it is called, it will act in blocking fashion anyway. -
PQisnonblocking -
Returns the blocking status of the database connection.
int PQisnonblocking(const PGconn *conn);
Returns 1 if the connection is set to nonblocking mode and 0 if blocking.
-
PQflush -
Attempts to flush any queued output data to the server. Returns 0 if successful (or if the send queue is empty), -1 if it failed for some reason, or 1 if it was unable to send all the data in the send queue yet (this case can only occur if the connection is nonblocking).
int PQflush(PGconn *conn);
After sending any command or data on a nonblocking connection, call
PQflush
. If it returns 1, wait for the socket
to become read- or write-ready. If it becomes write-ready, call
PQflush
again. If it becomes read-ready, call
PQconsumeInput
, then call
PQflush
again. Repeat until
PQflush
returns 0. (It is necessary to check for
read-ready and drain the input with
PQconsumeInput
,
because the server can block trying to send us data, e.g. NOTICE
messages, and won't read our data until we read its.) Once
PQflush
returns 0, wait for the socket to be
read-ready and then read the response as described above.