I ran afoul of these rules the other day when compiling pgsql 8.1 on AIX. The configure scripts are set up to look for "xlc" instead of "cc", and that command invokes cc with "-qalias=ansi", the ANSI-strict pointer aliasing mode.
Specifically, in this mode, the compiler assumes that accesses via pointers of different types never alias. Unfortunately, this breaks all of the Value construction code, because we end up with (for example): Node *n = palloc0fast(...); n->tag = T_VALUE; Value *v = (Value *) n; v->tag = T_STRING; And aggressive compiler optimization can reorder these two tag assignments, resulting in the bizarre "Unrecognized node type: 650" message. The fix is one of two things: 1. Change the "tag" element of structures to be a Node, and access the tag via it: Major code change, allows Node to change in the future for instrumentation et cetera. 2. Make the makeNode macro cast to the derived structure before assigning the tag: Minor code change, makes assumptions about derived structures. 3. Get configure to select "cc" instead of "xlc": No code change, loses some performance. -- Taral <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "You can't prove anything." -- Gödel's Incompetence Theorem ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 4: Have you searched our list archives? http://archives.postgresql.org