Re: [HACKERS] pointer scope and memory contexts

2008-11-06 Thread Tom Lane
Tim Keitt [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
 [questions]

Switching memory contexts, in itself, only switches which context a bare
palloc() will allocate from (as opposed to MemoryContextAlloc).  It
cannot have some magic impact on the validity of existing pointers.

 One last question: if I call SPI_finish, on the first call, do I need
 to switch contexts in the per-call section? (I saw some example code
 that suggested one needs to switch contexts back to
 multi_call_memory_ctx after SPI_finish.)

I believe SPI_finish will switch back to the context that was current
when SPI_connect was called.

regards, tom lane

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Re: [HACKERS] pointer scope and memory contexts

2008-11-06 Thread Pavan Deolasee
On Thu, Nov 6, 2008 at 7:01 AM, Tim Keitt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 I am working on a set returning function and have a question about
 switching memory contexts. Basically, what I want to know is whether
 memory allocated in one context can be referenced when a different
 context is current.

You can safely refer the memory allocated in a different context as
long as the other memory context is still alive.


Thanks,
Pavan

-- 
Pavan Deolasee
EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com

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[HACKERS] pointer scope and memory contexts

2008-11-05 Thread Tim Keitt
I am working on a set returning function and have a question about
switching memory contexts. Basically, what I want to know is whether
memory allocated in one context can be referenced when a different
context is current.  The docs give examples like:

if (SRF_IS_FIRSTCALL())
{
funcctx = SRF_FIRSTCALL_INIT();
oldcontext = MemoryContextSwitchTo(funcctx-multi_call_memory_ctx);

/* allocate some memory that needs to span calls */
my_ptr = (a_type *) palloc(size);

MemoryContextSwitchTo(oldcontext);
}

funcctx = SRF_PERCALL_SETUP();

/* can I now dereference here? Is it necessary to manually switch
to multi_call_memory_ctx? */
some_function(my_ptr[0]);
...

In a related question, do I only need to switch to
multi_call_memory_ctx when allocating memory that needs to be
referenced in subsequent calls? Would the following make sense?

if (SRF_IS_FIRSTCALL())
{
funcctx = SRF_FIRSTCALL_INIT();

/* this will be deallocated at the end of the first call, right? */
scratch_ptr = (a_type *) palloc(size);

oldcontext = MemoryContextSwitchTo(funcctx-multi_call_memory_ctx);
/* allocate some memory that needs to span calls */
my_ptr = (a_type *) palloc(size);
MemoryContextSwitchTo(oldcontext);

/* can I dereference my_ptr here? */
func_called_once(scratch_ptr, my_ptr);

...

}

/* per call stuff follows... */

In other words, if I have allocations that only are needed during the
first call, can I allocate them outside of the multi_call_memory_ctx
(so that they do not live past the first call) and only allocate the
memory needed for multiple calls within the multi_call_memory_ctx?

One last question: if I call SPI_finish, on the first call, do I need
to switch contexts in the per-call section? (I saw some example code
that suggested one needs to switch contexts back to
multi_call_memory_ctx after SPI_finish.)

Thanks.

THK

-- 
Timothy H. Keitt
http://www.keittlab.org/

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