1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
2 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>40.1. Installing Procedural Languages</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="prev" href="xplang.html" title="Chapter 40. Procedural Languages" /><link rel="next" href="plpgsql.html" title="Chapter 41. PL/pgSQL — SQL Procedural Language" /></head><body id="docContent" class="container-fluid col-10"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">40.1. Installing Procedural Languages</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="xplang.html" title="Chapter 40. Procedural Languages">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="xplang.html" title="Chapter 40. Procedural Languages">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 40. Procedural Languages</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 18.0 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="plpgsql.html" title="Chapter 41. PL/pgSQL — SQL Procedural Language">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="sect1" id="XPLANG-INSTALL"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">40.1. Installing Procedural Languages <a href="#XPLANG-INSTALL" class="id_link">#</a></h2></div></div></div><p>
3 A procedural language must be <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">installed</span>”</span> into each
4 database where it is to be used. But procedural languages installed in
5 the database <code class="literal">template1</code> are automatically available in all
6 subsequently created databases, since their entries in
7 <code class="literal">template1</code> will be copied by <code class="command">CREATE DATABASE</code>.
8 So the database administrator can
9 decide which languages are available in which databases and can make
10 some languages available by default if desired.
12 For the languages supplied with the standard distribution, it is
13 only necessary to execute <code class="command">CREATE EXTENSION</code>
14 <em class="replaceable"><code>language_name</code></em> to install the language into the
16 The manual procedure described below is only recommended for
17 installing languages that have not been packaged as extensions.
18 </p><div class="procedure" id="id-1.8.7.5.4"><p class="title"><strong>Manual Procedural Language Installation</strong></p><p>
19 A procedural language is installed in a database in five steps,
20 which must be carried out by a database superuser. In most cases
21 the required SQL commands should be packaged as the installation script
22 of an <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">extension</span>”</span>, so that <code class="command">CREATE EXTENSION</code> can be
24 </p><ol class="procedure" type="1"><li class="step" id="XPLANG-INSTALL-CR1"><p>
25 The shared object for the language handler must be compiled and
26 installed into an appropriate library directory. This works in the same
27 way as building and installing modules with regular user-defined C
28 functions does; see <a class="xref" href="xfunc-c.html#DFUNC" title="36.10.5. Compiling and Linking Dynamically-Loaded Functions">Section 36.10.5</a>. Often, the language
29 handler will depend on an external library that provides the actual
30 programming language engine; if so, that must be installed as well.
31 </p></li><li class="step" id="XPLANG-INSTALL-CR2"><p>
32 The handler must be declared with the command
33 </p><pre class="synopsis">
34 CREATE FUNCTION <em class="replaceable"><code>handler_function_name</code></em>()
35 RETURNS language_handler
36 AS '<em class="replaceable"><code>path-to-shared-object</code></em>'
39 The special return type of <code class="type">language_handler</code> tells
40 the database system that this function does not return one of
41 the defined <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> data types and is not directly usable
42 in <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> statements.
43 </p></li><li class="step" id="XPLANG-INSTALL-CR3"><p>
44 Optionally, the language handler can provide an <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">inline</span>”</span>
45 handler function that executes anonymous code blocks
46 (<a class="link" href="sql-do.html" title="DO"><code class="command">DO</code></a> commands)
47 written in this language. If an inline handler function
48 is provided by the language, declare it with a command like
49 </p><pre class="synopsis">
50 CREATE FUNCTION <em class="replaceable"><code>inline_function_name</code></em>(internal)
52 AS '<em class="replaceable"><code>path-to-shared-object</code></em>'
55 </p></li><li class="step" id="XPLANG-INSTALL-CR4"><p>
56 Optionally, the language handler can provide a <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">validator</span>”</span>
57 function that checks a function definition for correctness without
58 actually executing it. The validator function is called by
59 <code class="command">CREATE FUNCTION</code> if it exists. If a validator function
60 is provided by the language, declare it with a command like
61 </p><pre class="synopsis">
62 CREATE FUNCTION <em class="replaceable"><code>validator_function_name</code></em>(oid)
64 AS '<em class="replaceable"><code>path-to-shared-object</code></em>'
67 </p></li><li class="step" id="XPLANG-INSTALL-CR5"><p>
68 Finally, the PL must be declared with the command
69 </p><pre class="synopsis">
70 CREATE [<span class="optional">TRUSTED</span>] LANGUAGE <em class="replaceable"><code>language_name</code></em>
71 HANDLER <em class="replaceable"><code>handler_function_name</code></em>
72 [<span class="optional">INLINE <em class="replaceable"><code>inline_function_name</code></em></span>]
73 [<span class="optional">VALIDATOR <em class="replaceable"><code>validator_function_name</code></em></span>] ;
75 The optional key word <code class="literal">TRUSTED</code> specifies that
76 the language does not grant access to data that the user would
77 not otherwise have. Trusted languages are designed for ordinary
78 database users (those without superuser privilege) and allows them
79 to safely create functions and
80 procedures. Since PL functions are executed inside the database
81 server, the <code class="literal">TRUSTED</code> flag should only be given
82 for languages that do not allow access to database server
83 internals or the file system. The languages
84 <span class="application">PL/pgSQL</span>,
85 <span class="application">PL/Tcl</span>, and
86 <span class="application">PL/Perl</span>
87 are considered trusted; the languages
88 <span class="application">PL/TclU</span>,
89 <span class="application">PL/PerlU</span>, and
90 <span class="application">PL/PythonU</span>
91 are designed to provide unlimited functionality and should
92 <span class="emphasis"><em>not</em></span> be marked trusted.
93 </p></li></ol></div><p>
94 <a class="xref" href="xplang-install.html#XPLANG-INSTALL-EXAMPLE" title="Example 40.1. Manual Installation of PL/Perl">Example 40.1</a> shows how the manual
95 installation procedure would work with the language
96 <span class="application">PL/Perl</span>.
97 </p><div class="example" id="XPLANG-INSTALL-EXAMPLE"><p class="title"><strong>Example 40.1. Manual Installation of <span class="application">PL/Perl</span></strong></p><div class="example-contents"><p>
98 The following command tells the database server where to find the
99 shared object for the <span class="application">PL/Perl</span> language's call
102 </p><pre class="programlisting">
103 CREATE FUNCTION plperl_call_handler() RETURNS language_handler AS
104 '$libdir/plperl' LANGUAGE C;
107 <span class="application">PL/Perl</span> has an inline handler function
108 and a validator function, so we declare those too:
110 </p><pre class="programlisting">
111 CREATE FUNCTION plperl_inline_handler(internal) RETURNS void AS
112 '$libdir/plperl' LANGUAGE C STRICT;
114 CREATE FUNCTION plperl_validator(oid) RETURNS void AS
115 '$libdir/plperl' LANGUAGE C STRICT;
119 </p><pre class="programlisting">
120 CREATE TRUSTED LANGUAGE plperl
121 HANDLER plperl_call_handler
122 INLINE plperl_inline_handler
123 VALIDATOR plperl_validator;
125 then defines that the previously declared functions
126 should be invoked for functions and procedures where the
127 language attribute is <code class="literal">plperl</code>.
128 </p></div></div><br class="example-break" /><p>
129 In a default <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> installation,
130 the handler for the <span class="application">PL/pgSQL</span> language
131 is built and installed into the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">library</span>”</span>
132 directory; furthermore, the <span class="application">PL/pgSQL</span> language
133 itself is installed in all databases.
134 If <span class="application">Tcl</span> support is configured in, the handlers for
135 <span class="application">PL/Tcl</span> and <span class="application">PL/TclU</span> are built and installed
136 in the library directory, but the language itself is not installed in any
138 Likewise, the <span class="application">PL/Perl</span> and <span class="application">PL/PerlU</span>
139 handlers are built and installed if Perl support is configured, and the
140 <span class="application">PL/PythonU</span> handler is installed if Python support is
141 configured, but these languages are not installed by default.
142 </p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="xplang.html" title="Chapter 40. Procedural Languages">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="xplang.html" title="Chapter 40. Procedural Languages">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="plpgsql.html" title="Chapter 41. PL/pgSQL — SQL Procedural Language">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 40. Procedural Languages </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 18.0 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Chapter 41. <span class="application">PL/pgSQL</span> — <acronym class="acronym">SQL</acronym> Procedural Language</td></tr></table></div></body></html>