Re: Optimize postgres protocol for fixed size arrays

On 23 November 2011 10:47, Mikko Tiihonen
<mikko.tiihonen@nitorcreations.com> wrote:

> Here is a patch that adds a new flag to the protocol that is set when all
> elements of the array are of same fixed size.
> When the bit is set the 4 byte length is only sent once and not for each
> element. Another restriction is that the flag
> can only be set when there are no NULLs in the array.

How does a client detect that this feature is supported?

At a glance the JDBC patch doesn't use it on the send path, but
presumably clients could use this when sending binary-format arrays to
the server - but only if the server understood the format.

(Ideally a pair of settings would be useful here - one to say "the
server understands the new format" and another the client sets to say
"please use the new format" that defaults to off - then you could
avoid confusing old clients, too)

Oliver