My situation is that I am interacting PHP 4.1.2 to PostgreSQL 7.2.2 I have no difficulty inserting and managing BLOBs into the Large Object system table, and I have a user table called images which maintains the relationship between the BLOB loid and the identity that relates to it in my user tables. So far so good.
When I RTFM obout psql it refers to the \lo_import, \lo_list, \lo_export and \lo_unlink functions. The syntax for the \lo_import function indicates that a comment may be appended to the BLOB entry in the large object system table. What is not mentioned is that this will only occur if psql is run as the PostgreSQL superuser. Now, my concern is that if I use pg_dump with the --clean or --create, and the --blobs options, and then try a pg_restore from the resulting archive file, I believe the BLOBs will take up a different loid to the one they came from, and hence the relation in my user table will be broken and I will not be able to relocate the BLOBs using my identifier in my images table. My other problem is that the various functions in PHP, namely the various pg_lo_* functions do not appear to have the ability to include the comment option that is available to \lo_import under psql. I suppose one workaround, though not very elegant, would be to use under PHP something like `psql \lo_export <known_file_name>` whilst running through the records in the images table, and not to use the --blobs option under pg_dump, then use `psql \lo_import <known_file_name>` called from PHP to reload them after a pg_restore has been run, at the same time updating the loids in my images table. As I say very inelegant. I guess this must be a shortfall in both PHP, in as much as it doesn't appear to handle BLOBs to cleanly, and PostgreSQL in its way that it handles the description column in the large opjects system table. Am I right or wrong, or is there a better workaround? -- Howard. LANNet Computing Associates - Your Linux people <http://www.lannetlinux.com> ------------------------------------------ Flatter government, not fatter government - Get rid of the Australian states. ------------------------------------------ If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion - George Bernard Shaw ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: Have you checked our extensive FAQ? http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs/FAQ.html