| PostgreSQL 8.0.1 Documentation | ||||
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    This section describes the facilities that
    PostgreSQL client interface libraries
    provide for accessing large objects.  All large object
    manipulation using these functions must take
    place within an SQL transaction block.  (This requirement is
    strictly enforced as of PostgreSQL 6.5, though it
    has been an implicit requirement in previous versions, resulting
    in misbehavior if ignored.)
    The  PostgreSQL  large  object interface is modeled after
    the Unix  file-system  interface,  with  analogues  of
    open,  read,
    write,
    lseek, etc.
   
Client applications which use the large object interface in libpq should include the header file libpq/libpq-fs.h and link with the libpq library.
The function
Oid lo_creat(PGconn *conn, int mode);
creates a new large object. mode is a bit mask describing several different attributes of the new object. The symbolic constants used here are defined in the header file libpq/libpq-fs.h. The access type (read, write, or both) is controlled by or'ing together the bits INV_READ and INV_WRITE. The low-order sixteen bits of the mask have historically been used at Berkeley to designate the storage manager number on which the large object should reside. These bits should always be zero now. (The access type does not actually do anything anymore either, but one or both flag bits must be set to avoid an error.) The return value is the OID that was assigned to the new large object, or InvalidOid (zero) on failure.
An example:
inv_oid = lo_creat(conn, INV_READ|INV_WRITE);
To import an operating system file as a large object, call
Oid lo_import(PGconn *conn, const char *filename);
filename specifies the operating system name of the file to be imported as a large object. The return value is the OID that was assigned to the new large object, or InvalidOid (zero) on failure. Note that the file is read by the client interface library, not by the server; so it must exist in the client filesystem and be readable by the client application.
To export a large object into an operating system file, call
int lo_export(PGconn *conn, Oid lobjId, const char *filename);
The lobjId argument specifies the OID of the large object to export and the filename argument specifies the operating system name of the file. Note that the file is written by the client interface library, not by the server. Returns 1 on success, -1 on failure.
To open an existing large object for reading or writing, call
int lo_open(PGconn *conn, Oid lobjId, int mode);
     
     The lobjId argument specifies  the  OID  of  the  large
     object  to  open.   The  mode  bits control whether the
     object is opened  for  reading  (INV_READ),  writing (INV_WRITE),  or
     both.
     A  large  object cannot be opened before it is created.
     lo_open returns a (non-negative) large object
     descriptor for later use in lo_read,
     lo_write, lo_lseek,
     lo_tell, and lo_close.
     The descriptor is only valid for 
     the duration of the current transaction.
     On failure, -1 is returned.
The function
int lo_write(PGconn *conn, int fd, const char *buf, size_t len);
      writes
     len bytes from buf
     to large object descriptor fd.  The fd
     argument must have been returned by a previous
     lo_open.  The number of bytes actually
     written is returned.  In the event of an error, the return value
     is negative.
The function
int lo_read(PGconn *conn, int fd, char *buf, size_t len);
      reads
     len bytes from large object descriptor
     fd into buf. The
     fd argument must have been returned by a
     previous lo_open.  The number of bytes
     actually read is returned. In the event of an error, the return
     value is negative.
To change the current read or write location associated with a large object descriptor, call
int lo_lseek(PGconn *conn, int fd, int offset, int whence);
This function moves the current location pointer for the large object descriptor identified by fd to the new location specified by offset. The valid values for whence are SEEK_SET (seek from object start), SEEK_CUR (seek from current position), and SEEK_END (seek from object end). The return value is the new location pointer, or -1 on error.
To obtain the current read or write location of a large object descriptor, call
int lo_tell(PGconn *conn, int fd);
A large object descriptor may be closed by calling
int lo_close(PGconn *conn, int fd);
      where fd is a
     large object descriptor returned by lo_open.
     On success, lo_close returns zero.  On
     error, the return value is negative.
Any large object descriptors that remain open at the end of a transaction will be closed automatically.
To remove a large object from the database, call
int lo_unlink(PGconn *conn, Oid lobjId);
The lobjId argument specifies the OID of the large object to remove. Returns 1 if successful, -1 on failure.