@ -69,6 +69,17 @@
access reads and writes.
</para>
<para>
The chunks stored for a large object do not have to be contiguous.
For example, if an application opens a new large object, seeks to offset
1000000, and writes a few bytes there, this does not result in allocation
of 1000000 bytes worth of storage; only of chunks covering the range of
data bytes actually written. A read operation will, however, read out
zeroes for any unallocated locations preceding the last existing chunk.
This corresponds to the common behavior of <quote>sparsely allocated</>
files in <acronym>Unix</acronym> file systems.
</para>
<para>
As of <productname>PostgreSQL</> 9.0, large objects have an owner
and a set of access permissions, which can be managed using
@ -299,11 +310,19 @@ inv_fd = lo_open(conn, inv_oid, INV_READ|INV_WRITE);
int lo_write(PGconn *conn, int fd, const char *buf, size_t len);
</synopsis>
writes <parameter>len</parameter> bytes from <parameter>buf</parameter>
to large object descriptor <parameter>fd</>. The <parameter>fd</parameter>
argument must have been returned by a previous
<function>lo_open</function>. The number of bytes actually
written is returned. In the event of an error, the return value
is -1.
(which must be of size <parameter>len</parameter>) to large object
descriptor <parameter>fd</>. The <parameter>fd</parameter> argument must
have been returned by a previous <function>lo_open</function>. The
number of bytes actually written is returned (in the current
implementation, this will always equal <parameter>len</parameter> unless
there is an error). In the event of an error, the return value is -1.
</para>
<para>
Although the <parameter>len</parameter> parameter is declared as
<type>size_t</>, this function will reject length values larger than
<literal>INT_MAX</>. In practice, it's best to transfer data in chunks
of at most a few megabytes anyway.
</para>
</sect2>
@ -316,13 +335,22 @@ int lo_write(PGconn *conn, int fd, const char *buf, size_t len);
<synopsis>
int lo_read(PGconn *conn, int fd, char *buf, size_t len);
</synopsis>
reads <parameter>len</parameter> bytes from large object descriptor
<parameter>fd</parameter> into <parameter>buf</parameter>. The
<parameter>fd</parameter> argument must have been returned by a
previous <function>lo_open</function>. The number of bytes
actually read is returned. In the event of an error, the return
reads up to <parameter>len</parameter> bytes from large object descriptor
<parameter>fd</parameter> into <parameter>buf</parameter> (which must be
of size <parameter>len</parameter>). The <parameter>fd</parameter>
argument must have been returned by a previous
<function>lo_open</function>. The number of bytes actually read is
returned; this will be less than <parameter>len</parameter> if the end of
the large object is reached first. In the event of an error, the return
value is -1.
</para>
<para>
Although the <parameter>len</parameter> parameter is declared as
<type>size_t</>, this function will reject length values larger than
<literal>INT_MAX</>. In practice, it's best to transfer data in chunks
of at most a few megabytes anyway.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="lo-seek">
@ -416,7 +444,7 @@ int lo_truncate(PGcon *conn, int fd, size_t len);
<parameter>fd</parameter> argument must have been returned by a
previous <function>lo_open</function>. If <parameter>len</> is
greater than the large object's current length, the large object
is extended with null bytes ('\0').
is extended to the specified length with null bytes ('\0').
On success, <function>lo_truncate</function> returns
zero. On error, the return value is -1.
</para>
@ -426,6 +454,12 @@ int lo_truncate(PGcon *conn, int fd, size_t len);
<parameter>fd</parameter> is not changed.
</para>
<para>
Although the <parameter>len</parameter> parameter is declared as
<type>size_t</>, <function>lo_truncate</function> will reject length
values larger than <literal>INT_MAX</>.
</para>
<para>
<indexterm><primary>lo_truncate64</></>
When dealing with large objects that might exceed 2GB in size,