Subject: questions about postgres

From: Carolyn Giberson <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 91 10:09:16 -0700

I'm just learning the POSTGRES system, and am trying to implement rules.
I created the following rule using vi:

define rule rule_1f is
on replace to faculty.salary
where current.lname = "sullivan"
do replace faculty(salary = new.salary) 
where faculty.lname = "giberson"

This rule worked fine when initially implemented, but now when I try
to access any of the relations in this database I get the following error
message (I know the relations exist and contain data):

Unexpected identifier.  Trying to reestablish communication
identifier is :?
giber, college,/dev/null

This result is puzzling.  Can you suggest what I am doing wrong on rules,
or do the symptoms I've described have no connection, and the problem
lies elsewhere?

---

From: kyongsok kim <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 91 11:31:17 -0700

> From: Carolyn Giberson <[email-masked]>
> Subject: questions about postgres
> ...
>
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> identifier is :?
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> or do the symptoms I've described have no connection, and the problem

I (and several others) encountered this prolbem.  At least a few months
ago when I got this error message (several times or even tens of times per
day), it had NOTHING to do with my program.  Rather, it was a bug of
postgres.  I reported this was a very serious problem.  I don't have if
it has been fixed yet...  Well it seems not, since you reported the same
problem.

The temporary cure was (and is still?) to kill the postgres and restart
it.

Hope it helps.

k kim