Chapter 43. Server Programming Interface
The Server Programming Interface
(SPI) gives writers of user-defined
C functions the ability to run
SQL commands inside their functions.
SPI is a set of
interface functions to simplify access to the parser, planner,
and executor. SPI also does some
memory management.
Note: The available procedural languages provide various means to
execute SQL commands from procedures. Most of these facilities are
based on SPI, so this documentation might be of use for users
of those languages as well.
To avoid misunderstanding we'll use the term "function"
when we speak of SPI interface functions and
"procedure" for a user-defined C-function that is
using SPI.
Note that if a command invoked via SPI fails, then control will not be
returned to your procedure. Rather, the
transaction or subtransaction in which your procedure executes will be
rolled back. (This might seem surprising given that the SPI functions mostly
have documented error-return conventions. Those conventions only apply
for errors detected within the SPI functions themselves, however.)
It is possible to recover control after an error by establishing your own
subtransaction surrounding SPI calls that might fail. This is not currently
documented because the mechanisms required are still in flux.
SPI functions return a nonnegative result on
success (either via a returned integer value or in the global
variable SPI_result, as described below). On
error, a negative result or NULL will be returned.
Source code files that use SPI must include the header file
executor/spi.h.