doc/src/sgml/ref/create_language.sgml

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$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_language.sgml,v 1.42 2006/09/16 00:30:17 momjian Exp $
PostgreSQL documentation
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<refentry id="SQL-CREATELANGUAGE">
 <refmeta>
  <refentrytitle id="sql-createlanguage-title">CREATE LANGUAGE</refentrytitle>
  <refmiscinfo>SQL - Language Statements</refmiscinfo>
 </refmeta>

 <refnamediv>
  <refname>CREATE LANGUAGE</refname>
  <refpurpose>define a new procedural language</refpurpose>
 </refnamediv>

 <indexterm zone="sql-createlanguage">
  <primary>CREATE LANGUAGE</primary>
 </indexterm>

 <refsynopsisdiv>
<synopsis>
CREATE [ PROCEDURAL ] LANGUAGE <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
CREATE [ TRUSTED ] [ PROCEDURAL ] LANGUAGE <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
    HANDLER <replaceable class="parameter">call_handler</replaceable> [ VALIDATOR <replaceable>valfunction</replaceable> ]
</synopsis>
 </refsynopsisdiv>

 <refsect1 id="sql-createlanguage-description">
  <title>Description</title>

  <para>
   Using <command>CREATE LANGUAGE</command>, a
   <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> user can register a new
   procedural language with a <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
   database.  Subsequently, functions and trigger procedures can be
   defined in this new language.  The user must have the
   <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> superuser privilege to
   register a new language.
  </para>

  <para>
   <command>CREATE LANGUAGE</command> effectively associates the
   language name with a call handler that is responsible for executing
   functions written in the language.  Refer to <xref linkend="xplang">
   for more information about language call handlers.
  </para>

  <para>
   There are two forms of the <command>CREATE LANGUAGE</command> command.
   In the first form, the user supplies just the name of the desired
   language, and the <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> server consults
   the <link linkend="catalog-pg-pltemplate"><structname>pg_pltemplate</structname></link>
   system catalog to determine the correct parameters.  In the second form,
   the user supplies the language parameters along with the language name.
   The second form can be used to create a language that is not defined in
   <structname>pg_pltemplate</>, but this approach is considered obsolescent.
  </para>

  <para>
   When the server finds an entry in the <structname>pg_pltemplate</> catalog
   for the given language name, it will use the catalog data even if the
   command includes language parameters.  This behavior simplifies loading of
   old dump files, which are likely to contain out-of-date information
   about language support functions.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 id="sql-createlanguage-parameters">
  <title>Parameters</title>

   <variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><literal>TRUSTED</literal></term>

     <listitem>
      <para>
       <literal>TRUSTED</literal> specifies that the call handler for
       the language is safe, that is, it does not offer an
       unprivileged user any functionality to bypass access
       restrictions. If this key word is omitted when registering the
       language, only users with the
       <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> superuser privilege can
       use this language to create new functions.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
     <term><literal>PROCEDURAL</literal></term>

     <listitem>
      <para>
       This is a noise word.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
     <term><replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></term>

     <listitem>
      <para>
       The name of the new procedural language.  The language name is
       case insensitive. The name must be unique among the languages
       in the database.
      </para>

      <para>
       For backward compatibility, the name may be enclosed by single
       quotes.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
     <term><literal>HANDLER</literal> <replaceable class="parameter">call_handler</replaceable></term>

     <listitem>
      <para>
       <replaceable class="parameter">call_handler</replaceable> is
       the name of a previously registered function that will be
       called to execute the procedural language functions.  The call
       handler for a procedural language must be written in a compiled
       language such as C with version 1 call convention and
       registered with <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> as a
       function taking no arguments and returning the
       <type>language_handler</type> type, a placeholder type that is
       simply used to identify the function as a call handler.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
     <term><literal>VALIDATOR</literal> <replaceable class="parameter">valfunction</replaceable></term>

     <listitem>
      <para>
       <replaceable class="parameter">valfunction</replaceable> is the
       name of a previously registered function that will be called
       when a new function in the language is created, to validate the
       new function.
       If no
       validator function is specified, then a new function will not
       be checked when it is created.
       The validator function must take one argument of
       type <type>oid</type>, which will be the OID of the
       to-be-created function, and will typically return <type>void</>.
      </para>

      <para>
       A validator function would typically inspect the function body
       for syntactical correctness, but it can also look at other
       properties of the function, for example if the language cannot
       handle certain argument types.  To signal an error, the
       validator function should use the <function>ereport()</function>
       function.  The return value of the function is ignored.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
   </variablelist>

  <para>
   The <literal>TRUSTED</> option and the support function name(s) are
   ignored if the server has an entry for the specified language
   name in <structname>pg_pltemplate</>.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 id="sql-createlanguage-notes">
  <title>Notes</title>

  <para>
   The <xref linkend="app-createlang"> program is a simple wrapper around
   the <command>CREATE LANGUAGE</> command.  It eases
   installation of procedural languages from the shell command line.
  </para>

  <para>
   Use <xref linkend="sql-droplanguage" endterm="sql-droplanguage-title">, or better yet the <xref
   linkend="app-droplang"> program, to drop procedural languages.
  </para>

  <para>
   The system catalog <classname>pg_language</classname> (see <xref
   linkend="catalog-pg-language">) records information about the
   currently installed languages.  Also, <command>createlang</command>
   has an option to list the installed languages.
  </para>

  <para>
   To create functions in a procedural language, a user must have the
   <literal>USAGE</literal> privilege for the language.  By default,
   <literal>USAGE</> is granted to <literal>PUBLIC</> (i.e., everyone)
   for trusted languages.  This may be revoked if desired.
  </para>

  <para>
   Procedural languages are local to individual databases.
   However, a language can be installed into the <literal>template1</literal>
   database, which will cause it to be available automatically in
   all subsequently-created databases.
  </para>

  <para>
   The call handler function and the validator function (if any)
   must already exist if the server does not have an entry for the language
   in <structname>pg_pltemplate</>.  But when there is an entry,
   the functions need not already exist;
   they will be automatically defined if not present in the database.
   (This can result in <command>CREATE LANGUAGE</> failing, if the
   shared library that implements the language is not available in
   the installation.)
  </para>

  <para>
   In <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> versions before 7.3, it was
   necessary to declare handler functions as returning the placeholder
   type <type>opaque</>, rather than <type>language_handler</>.
   To support loading 
   of old dump files, <command>CREATE LANGUAGE</> will accept a function
   declared as returning <type>opaque</>, but it will issue a notice and
   change the function's declared return type to <type>language_handler</>.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 id="sql-createlanguage-examples">
  <title>Examples</title>

  <para>
   The preferred way of creating any of the standard procedural languages
   is just:
<programlisting>
CREATE LANGUAGE plpgsql;
</programlisting>
  </para>

  <para>
   For a language not known in the <structname>pg_pltemplate</> catalog, a
   sequence such as this is needed:
<programlisting>
CREATE FUNCTION plsample_call_handler() RETURNS language_handler
    AS '$libdir/plsample'
    LANGUAGE C;
CREATE LANGUAGE plsample
    HANDLER plsample_call_handler;
</programlisting>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 id="sql-createlanguage-compat">
  <title>Compatibility</title>

  <para>
   <command>CREATE LANGUAGE</command> is a
   <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> extension.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
  <title>See Also</title>

  <simplelist type="inline">
   <member><xref linkend="sql-alterlanguage" endterm="sql-alterlanguage-title"></member>
   <member><xref linkend="sql-createfunction" endterm="sql-createfunction-title"></member>
   <member><xref linkend="sql-droplanguage" endterm="sql-droplanguage-title"></member>
   <member><xref linkend="sql-grant" endterm="sql-grant-title"></member>
   <member><xref linkend="sql-revoke" endterm="sql-revoke-title"></member>
   <member><xref linkend="app-createlang" endterm="app-createlang-title"></member>
   <member><xref linkend="app-droplang" endterm="app-droplang-title"></member>
  </simplelist>
 </refsect1>
</refentry>