pg_dump case folding bug

[Russell Smith]

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Your name : Russell Smith
Your email address : As From address

System Configuration
---------------------
Architecture (example: Intel Pentium) : AMD 2000XP

Operating System (example: Linux 2.4.18) : Gentoo Linux 2.4.20-r9

PostgreSQL version (example: PostgreSQL-8.0): PostgreSQL-8.0-beta4

Compiler used (example: gcc 2.95.2) : gcc (GCC) 3.3.3 20040412 (Gentoo Linux 3.3.3-r6, ssp-3.3.2-2, pie-8.7.6)

Please enter a FULL description of your problem:
------------------------------------------------
pg_dump -i -h '10.0.0.5' -p '5432' -s 'test' -t '"Test"'

pg_dump does not fold case, and quote table and schema names correctly.
the above line will dump the table named "Test"

pg_dump -i -h '10.0.0.5' -p '5432' -s 'test' -t 'Test'
the above will dump the table named Test

I believe the correct output from 1 should be to dump the table named Test.
and correct output from 2 should dump the table named test

Please describe a way to repeat the problem. Please try to provide a
concise reproducible example, if at all possible:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Reproduction from commands in description.

If you know how this problem might be fixed, list the solution below:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Attempted patches attached. Most code taken from libpq and modified for pg_dump.

[Russell Smith]

On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 04:05 pm, Tom Lane wrote:
> Russell Smith <mr-...@pws.com.au> writes:
> > pg_dump does not fold case, and quote table and schema names correctly.
>

> This is not a bug; it is a behavior we deliberately adopted years ago,
> after unsuccessful experiments with behavior like what you propose.
>
> The rule is that names appearing on a shell command line are taken
> literally, without dequoting or case folding. Yes, this is inconsistent
> with the behavior if the same string were entered within an SQL context,
> but then again the command line isn't an SQL context.
>
> The main reason for this position is that the shell imposes its own
> quoting rules that we can't avoid, and these rules are not very
> compatible with the SQL identifier quoting rules. Do you *really*
> want to have to type '"Test"' when you could just write Test ?
>
> Even more to the point, the only argument in favor of adding code to do
> it like this is to try to make the shell command line context just like
> the SQL context, but *you can't make it so*. If you could make "Test"
> on the command line work just like "Test" in SQL it'd be great ... but
> you can't because the shell will strip the double quotes before you ever
> see them.
>
> We went around a few times on this, but eventually decided it was
> unhelpful to try to emulate the SQL quoting behavior.
>
Thanks Tom, I found this out after talking to the pg_dump developers.
I had discussed with Neil if this should be implement and proposed I
have a go at it. I have since seen otherwise and identified the bug
in phppgadmin causing the problem.

Thanks for the detailed answer.

> BTW, this behavior is consistent across all our command-line tools;
> if we did want to change it it'd affect much more than just pg_dump.
>
> regards, tom lane
>
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