Update docs & tests to reflect that unassigned OLD/NEW are now NULL.
For a long time, plpgsql has allowed trigger functions to parse
references to OLD and NEW even if the current trigger event type didn't
assign a value to one or the other variable; but actually executing such
a reference would fail. The v11 changes to use "expanded records" for
DTYPE_REC variables changed the behavior so that the unassigned variable
now reads as a null composite value. While this behavioral change was
more or less unintentional, it seems that leaving it like this is better
than adding code and complexity to be bug-compatible with the old way.
The change doesn't break any code that worked before, and it eliminates
a gotcha that often required extra code to work around.
Hence, update the docs to say that these variables are "null" not
"unassigned" when not relevant to the event type. And add a regression
test covering the behavior, so that we'll notice if we ever break it
again.
Per report from Kristjan Tammekivi.
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/CAABK7uL-uC9ZxKBXzo_68pKt7cECfNRv+c35CXZpjq6jCAzYYA@mail.gmail.com
Branch
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REL_11_STABLE
Details
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https://git.postgresql.org/pg/commitdiff/312d21d8635065c14d392b4e5469e7abc03f2bde
Modified Files
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doc/src/sgml/plpgsql.sgml | 4 +--
doc/src/sgml/release-11.sgml | 18 ++++++++++++-
src/pl/plpgsql/src/Makefile | 2 +-
src/pl/plpgsql/src/expected/plpgsql_trigger.out | 36 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
src/pl/plpgsql/src/pl_exec.c | 11 ++++----
src/pl/plpgsql/src/sql/plpgsql_trigger.sql | 24 +++++++++++++++++
6 files changed, 86 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)