Re: Is 4GL calling C safe from within a stored proc?

>From: uunet!jrh!jrh (James R. Hamilton) >Subject: Is 4GL calling C safe from within a stored proc? >Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1993 13:42:55 GMT >X-Informix-List-Id: <news.3717> > 4GL programs can call C programs. Is this supported in a stored > procedure? If it supported, is it safe and by this I mean, can > failure of the called C program (e.g. writing to a bad pointer) > bring down the server? It depends what you mean by "call C programs". If you mean "run an independent C program", then the answer in both I4GL and SPL (stored procedure language) is "Yes, you can", and "Yes, it's supported", and "Yes, it's safe". If you mean "call a user-written C function", then the answer in I4GL is "Yes, you can", and "Yes, it's supported", and "No, it's not safe if your code is bad". The corresponding answer for SPL "No, you can't", so the other questions are inapplicable, and the reason is precisely because a bad pointer could could indeed bring the OnLine system. More seriously, a duff pointer could corrupt data w/o bringing the OnLine system down. Either way, Informix is (in my view entirely correctly) not providing access to C functions from within SPL. Yours, Jonathan Leffler (johnl@obelix.informix.com) #include <disclaimer.h>