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$PostgreSQL: pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/listen.sgml,v 1.23 2008/11/14 10:22:47 petere Exp $
PostgreSQL documentation
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<refentry id="SQL-LISTEN">
 <refmeta>
  <refentrytitle id="SQL-LISTEN-TITLE">LISTEN</refentrytitle>
  <manvolnum>7</manvolnum>
  <refmiscinfo>SQL - Language Statements</refmiscinfo>
 </refmeta>

 <refnamediv>
  <refname>LISTEN</refname>
  <refpurpose>listen for a notification</refpurpose>
 </refnamediv>

 <indexterm zone="sql-listen">
  <primary>LISTEN</primary>
 </indexterm>

 <refsynopsisdiv>
<synopsis>
LISTEN <replaceable class="PARAMETER">name</replaceable>
</synopsis>
 </refsynopsisdiv>

 <refsect1>
  <title>Description</title>

  <para>
   <command>LISTEN</command> registers the current session as a
   listener on the notification condition <replaceable
   class="PARAMETER">name</replaceable>.
   If the current session is already registered as a listener for
   this notification condition, nothing is done.
  </para>

  <para>
   Whenever the command <command>NOTIFY <replaceable
   class="PARAMETER">name</replaceable></command> is invoked, either
   by this session or another one connected to the same database, all
   the sessions currently listening on that notification condition are
   notified, and each will in turn notify its connected client
   application.  See the discussion of <command>NOTIFY</command> for
   more information.
  </para>

  <para>
   A session can be unregistered for a given notify condition with the
   <command>UNLISTEN</command> command.  A session's listen
   registrations are automatically cleared when the session ends.
  </para>

  <para>
   The method a client application must use to detect notification events depends on
   which <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> application programming interface it
   uses.  With the <application>libpq</> library, the application issues
   <command>LISTEN</command> as an ordinary SQL command, and then must
   periodically call the function <function>PQnotifies</function> to find out
   whether any notification events have been received.  Other interfaces such as
   <application>libpgtcl</> provide higher-level methods for handling notify events; indeed,
   with <application>libpgtcl</> the application programmer should not even issue
   <command>LISTEN</command> or <command>UNLISTEN</command> directly.  See the
   documentation for the interface you are using for more details.
  </para>

  <para>
   <xref linkend="sql-notify" endterm="sql-notify-title">
   contains a more extensive
   discussion of the use of <command>LISTEN</command> and
   <command>NOTIFY</command>.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
  <title>Parameters</title>

  <variablelist>
   <varlistentry>
    <term><replaceable class="PARAMETER">name</replaceable></term>
    <listitem>
     <para>
      Name of a notify condition (any identifier).
     </para>
    </listitem>
   </varlistentry>
  </variablelist>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
  <title>Examples</title>

  <para>
   Configure and execute a listen/notify sequence from
   <application>psql</application>:

<programlisting>
LISTEN virtual;
NOTIFY virtual;
Asynchronous notification "virtual" received from server process with PID 8448.
</programlisting>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1>
  <title>Compatibility</title>

  <para>
   There is no <command>LISTEN</command> statement in the SQL
   standard.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

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

  <simplelist type="inline">
   <member><xref linkend="sql-notify" endterm="sql-notify-title"></member>
   <member><xref linkend="sql-unlisten" endterm="sql-unlisten-title"></member>
  </simplelist>
 </refsect1>
</refentry>