send()/receive() and on-disk storage

Hi,

Currently, there's a discussion on the pljava list, and we're confused
about a small detail:

Does PostgreSQL call the datatypes' defined send() function before
storing the tuple data in the table, on disk, and call receive() when
reading it again?

My position was that send()/receive() are only used for client
communication in the V3 protocol binary mode, and COPY in binary mode,
but the backend stores them in the tables as_is (modulo compression/
TOASTing).

Is my assumption correct?

Btw, I'm going to triple-check this in the source and via tests, too.

Thanks,
Markus
--
Markus Schaber | Logical Tracking&Tracing International AG
Dipl. Inf.     | Software Development GIS

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