We can define variables with any names in pgbench,
but only can refer them with names that consist of [A-Za-z0-9_]+ .
It could cause confusion discussed here:
http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/4B272833.8080500@2ndquadrant.com
The attached patch verifies variable names at definition.
$ pgbench -D var:name=value
(global): invalid variable name 'var:name'
It would help users to determine why their custom scripts failed
when they misuse "\setXXX :varname" (the colon should be removed).
Regards,
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Takahiro Itagaki
NTT Open Source Software Center