Fwd: Procedural Languages

Michael Nolan wrote:

PL/pgSQL and PL/perlu are the only ones I use.  I use PL/perlu primarily to launch shell scripts from triggers, for example to update an external website when a row in a table has been inserted, deleted or updated.

There is also another way to do what you describe that might be more secure.

Rather than having the DBMS launch shell scripts directly, instead use LISTEN/NOTIFY messaging, where the trigger posts a message, and you have an ordinary client script listening for them, and the client script launches the shell scripts when it gets a message.

This way, you need a persistent client script, but you don't need to invoke the shell in the DBMS ... or use the untrusted version of PL/Perl if that's all it was for.

-- Darren Duncan