executeUpdate() --- what does it actually return?

Hello,

I wonder, is this really correct what does executeUpdate() return?
I have table with a.o. foreign key pointing to the same table's
primary key (yes, it's parent_id). Aaaaand --- the reason of the
problem --- I defined a RULE, which looks like this:

CREATE RULE forum_articles_uplink AS
ON DELETE TO forum_articles DO
 UPDATE forum_articles
 SET parent_id = OLD.parent_id
 WHERE parent_id = OLD.id_article;

in short --- it places parent_id from deleted tuple into
all tuples, which have parent_id set to id_article of the deleted
one (erm... i guess the rule definition is easier to understand ;).

Anyway --- in this case executeUpdate() returns amount of tuples
modified by above rule instead of number of deleted tuples. Why
instead? Because in PSQL console, the query (delete) returns with
"1 row(s)" message, not with "5 row(s)" (if 5 articles were modified).

It caused me a lot of troubles, since in some cases (when rule did
not modify any tuple) executeUpdate() returned 0, and since
further code execution were depending on the result (if tuple were
delted, ie. result = 1 (in fact result > 0 didn't worked out too),
then do something), it --- as you now see --- simply didn't work.

So --- is the result of executeUpdate() really correct in cases,
when rule applies? On the one hand it's nice to know, how many tuples
were modified by the rule, but on the other hand --- it is very usefull
to know, how many tuples were deleted, updated or inserted.

Thank you for your attention.

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