46.3. Memory Management
- SPI_palloc — allocate memory in the upper executor context
- SPI_repalloc — reallocate memory in the upper executor context
- SPI_pfree — free memory in the upper executor context
- SPI_copytuple — make a copy of a row in the upper executor context
- SPI_returntuple — prepare to return a tuple as a Datum
- SPI_modifytuple — create a row by replacing selected fields of a given row
- SPI_freetuple — free a row allocated in the upper executor context
- SPI_freetuptable — free a row set created by
SPI_execute
or a similar function- SPI_freeplan — free a previously saved prepared statement
- SPI_repalloc — reallocate memory in the upper executor context
PostgreSQL allocates memory withinmemory contexts, which provide a convenient method of managing allocations made in many different places that need to live for differing amounts of time. Destroying a context releases all the memory that was allocated in it. Thus, it is not necessary to keep track of individual objects to avoid memory leaks; instead only a relatively small number of contexts have to be managed.palloc
and related functions allocate memory from the“current” context.
SPI_connect
creates a new memory context and makes it current.SPI_finish
restores the previous current memory context and destroys the context created bySPI_connect
. These actions ensure that transient memory allocations made inside your procedure are reclaimed at procedure exit, avoiding memory leakage.
However, if your procedure needs to return an object in allocated memory (such as a value of a pass-by-reference data type), you cannot allocate that memory usingpalloc
, at least not while you are connected to SPI. If you try, the object will be deallocated bySPI_finish
, and your procedure will not work reliably. To solve this problem, useSPI_palloc
to allocate memory for your return object.SPI_palloc
allocates memory in the“upper executor context”, that is, the memory context that was current whenSPI_connect
was called, which is precisely the right context for a value returned from your procedure. Several of the other utility procedures described in this section also return objects created in the upper executor context.
WhenSPI_connect
is called, the private context of the procedure, which is created bySPI_connect
, is made the current context. All allocations made bypalloc
,repalloc
, or SPI utility functions (except as described in this section) are made in this context. When a procedure disconnects from the SPI manager (viaSPI_finish
) the current context is restored to the upper executor context, and all allocations made in the procedure memory context are freed and cannot be used any more.