Re: New cast between inet/cidr and bytea

Bruce Momjian írta:
> Zoltan Boszormenyi wrote:
>   
>> Hi,
>>
>> we at Cybertec have developed cast functions in C between
>> inet/cidr <-> bytea for a client and we would like to submit it.
>>
>> This is how it works:
>> - IPv4 inet/cidr value will return 4 bytes if the netmask covers all 32 
>> bits.
>>   It returns 5 bytes if the netmask is shorter than 32 bits.
>> - Similarly for IPv6, 12[+1] bytes is returned.
>> - 4, 5, 12 or 13 bytes long bytea values are converted
>>   to an inet/cidr value, the 5th or 13th byte is range-checked
>>   to be a valid netmask value.
>>
>> What are the requirements for it to be accepted
>> as a core cast function or as a contrib module?
>>     
>
> You discuss it on the hackers list.

That's what I am trying to.

>   Have you read the developer's FAQ? 
>   

Not yet in its entireness.

> What is the use case for such a cast?
>   
e.g.:
# select '192.168.0.1'::inet::bytea;     bytea      
------------------\300\250\000\001
(1 row)

# select '192.168.0.0/24'::inet::bytea;       bytea        
----------------------\300\250\000\000\030
(1 row)

# select decode('\\300\\250\\000\\001', 'escape')::inet;  decode   
-------------192.168.0.1
(1 row)

# select decode('\\300\\250\\000\\000\\030', 'escape')::inet;    decode    
----------------192.168.0.2/24
(1 row)

Similarly for IPv6 addresses.
The application doesn't want to parse the textual IP address
when all the parsing and checking intelligence is already there
in the inet/cidr type checks. The reverse when you pass in bytes
is only a logical extension.

-- 
----------------------------------
Zoltán Böszörményi
Cybertec Geschwinde & Schönig GmbH
http://www.postgresql.at/