Re: Client encoding conversion for binary data (was Re: GUC and postgresql.conf docs)

"Zeugswetter Andreas SB SD" <ZeugswetterA@spardat.at> writes:
>> We could sidestep that issue if binary I/O for text was in server
>> encoding in all cases.

> I think that would be reasonable, yes. After all one argument for using 
> binary mode is speed and efficiency, and not it's editability with
> a text editor.

I just realized that there is a comparable issue for plain-text COPY.
It performs client-to-server encoding conversions in all cases ---
including when reading/writing a file in the server's filesystem.

I think it is correct for plain-text COPY to perform such conversions
when doing COPY to/from the client.  I'm much less convinced that it
is sane to apply client_encoding to server-side files.  On the other
hand, there's still the point about dumping a file one way and loading
it back the other.  Also, it's probably unwise to change this behavior
without a really good argument for doing so, since (AFAIR) we've not
had bug reports about it.

Comments anyone?
        regards, tom lane