I tried fixing this
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-general/2009-01/msg00030.php
by inserting SPI_push/SPI_pop calls around plperl's use of
InputFunctionCall and OutputFunctionCall.  Unfortunately it soon
turned into a mess, because there are various control paths through
that code and some arrive at the I/O calls inside a SPI context
while others don't.  We could probably fix it with a kluge or two
but it would be awfully fragile.  The reason for the inconsistency
is that the call handlers exit the SPI context before preparing
their results:

        /************************************************************
         * Disconnect from SPI manager and then create the return
         * values datum (if the input function does a palloc for it
         * this must not be allocated in the SPI memory context
         * because SPI_finish would free it).
         ************************************************************/
        if (SPI_finish() != SPI_OK_FINISH)
                elog(ERROR, "SPI_finish() failed");

It seems like a "clean" fix would involve moving the SPI_finish down
to the end and dealing with the problem mentioned in the comment by
paying an extra datumCopy cycle for pass-by-reference function results.
Which is annoying, though in the big scheme of things it's probably
not much compared to the overall overhead of a PL function.

I also thought about attacking the problem by having InputFunctionCall
and OutputFunctionCall automatically do SPI_push/SPI_pop if they are
called within an active SPI context.  I don't like this approach too
much because it seems likely to mask bugs as often as fix them.  (In
particular I'd be afraid to back-patch such a change.)  It might be the
cleanest solution overall, though, particularly when you consider that
we've probably got similar issues in pltcl, plpython, and add-on PLs.

Anyone have comments or better ideas?

                        regards, tom lane

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