On 08/04/2025 16:55, Tom Lane wrote:
Well, I don't mind pushing it, but does anyone want to review
it first? It sounded like Heikki had at least eyeballed the
patch, but I'm not sure if he's ready to sign off on it.
It looks good to me.
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/contrib-spi.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/contrib-spi.sgml
index 55d3fac7a69..6fa9479d1b9 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/contrib-spi.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/contrib-spi.sgml
@@ -81,10 +81,12 @@
<para>
<function>autoinc()</function> is a trigger that stores the next value of
a sequence into an integer field. This has some overlap with the
- built-in <quote>serial column</quote> feature, but it is not the same:
- <function>autoinc()</function> will override attempts to substitute a
- different field value during inserts, and optionally it can be
- used to increment the field during updates, too.
+ built-in <quote>serial column</quote> feature, but it is not the same.
+ The trigger will replace the field's value only if that value is
+ initially zero or null (after the action of the SQL statement that
+ inserted or updated the row). Also, if the sequence's next value is
+ zero, <function>nextval()</function> will be called a second time in
+ order to obtain a non-zero value.
</para>
That's a much clearer explanation of the behavior, but now that I read
that paragraph, I wonder *why* it behaves like that. I'm sure it's just
historical reasons. But perhaps we should nuke autoinc altogether?
--
Heikki Linnakangas
Neon (https://neon.tech)
