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PLV8

PLV8 is a trusted Javascript language extension for PostgreSQL. It can be used for stored procedures, triggers, etc.

PLV8 works with most versions of Postgres, version 13 and above.

Installing PLV8

If the PLV8 extension has been installed to your system, the PLV8 extension can be installed into your PostgreSQL database by running:

=# CREATE EXTENSION plv8;

Verifying Your Installation

You can verify the installation in two ways. As of PLV8 2.0.0, you can execute a stored procedure:

=# SELECT plv8_version();

Alternately, you can run the following on all versions of PLV8:

=# DO $$ plv8.elog(NOTICE, plv8.version); $$ LANGUAGE plv8;

Updating PLV8

As of PLV8 version 2.3.3, you can use upgrade scripts to upgrade your installation from any version higher than 1.5.0:

=# ALTER EXTENSION plv8 UPDATE TO `3.2.0`;

Note that until the database has been restarted, the old version of PLV8 will still be loaded, though SELECT plv8_version() will return the new version. This is an artifact of how Postgres manages extensions.

Updating Older PLV8 Installs

Updating PL/v8 is usually straightforward as it is a small and stable extension

The procedure that is responsible for invoking this installation script (generated during compile time based on plv8.sql.common), is controlled by PostgreSQL and runs when CREATE EXTENSION is executed only. After building, it takes the form of plv8--.sql and is usually located under /usr/share/postgresql/<PG_MAJOR>/extension, depending on the OS.

When this command is executed, PostgreSQL tracks which objects belong to the extension and conversely removes them upon uninstallation, i.e., whenever DROP EXTENSION is called.

You can explore some of the objects that PL/v8 stores under PostgreSQL:

=# SELECT lanname FROM pg_catalog.pg_language WHERE lanname = 'plv8';
=# SELECT proname FROM pg_proc p WHERE p.proname LIKE 'plv8%';
=# SELECT typname FROM pg_catalog.pg_type WHERE typname LIKE 'plv8%';

To update PostgreSQL, you can DROP the existing extension:

=# DROP EXTENSION plv8;

Install the new version, and CREATE the extension:

=# CREATE EXTENSION plv8;

Alternately, you can backup and restore your database.

Runtime Environment Separation

In PLV8, each session has one global JS runtime context. This enables function invocations at low cost, and sharing common object among the functions. However, for the security reasons, if the user switches to another with SET ROLE command, a new JS runtime context is initialized and used separately. This prevents the risk of unexpected information leaking.

Each plv8 function is invoked as if the function is the property of other object. This means this in each function is a Javascript object that is created every time the function is executed in a query. In other words, the life time and the visibility of the this object in a function is only a series of function calls in a query. If you need to share some value among different functions, keep it in the global plv8 object because each function invocation has a different this object.

Start-up Procedure

PLV8 provides a start up facility, which allows you to call a plv8 runtime environment initialization function specified in the GUC variable. This can only be set by someone with administrator access to the database you are accessing.

SET plv8.start_proc = 'plv8_init';
SELECT plv8_test(10);

If this variable is set when the runtime is initialized, before the function call of plv8_test() another plv8 function plv8_init() is invoked. In such initialization function, you can add any properties to plv8 object to expose common values or assign them to the this property. In the initialization function, the receiver this is specially pointing to the global object, so the variables that are assigned to the this property in this initialization are visible from any subsequent function as global variables.

Remember CREATE FUNCTION also starts the plv8 runtime environment, so make sure to SET this GUC before any plv8 actions including CREATE FUNCTION.

Stored procedures

There are a couple of utility procedures that will get installed.

These are useful for long-running connections from various backend services.

plv8_info

Get information about all the current running environments on a specific connection from all users.

Can be run by superuser only.

SELECT plv8_info();

Outputs JSON

[
  {
    "user": "user1",
    "total_heap_size": 1327104,
    "total_physical_size": 474336,
    "used_heap_size": 386680,
    "heap_size_limit": 270008320,
    "external_memory": 0,
    "number_of_native_contexts": 2,
    "contexts": []
  },
  {
    "user": "user2",
    "total_heap_size": 1327104,
    "total_physical_size": 474336,
    "used_heap_size": 386680,
    "heap_size_limit": 270008320,
    "external_memory": 0,
    "number_of_native_contexts": 3,
    "contexts": ["my context"]
  }
]

Note: "number_of_native_contexts" = "contexts".length + 2

plv8_reset

Reset user isolate or context

To reset a specific context run:

SELECT plv8_reset('my context');

Will reset the context and re-create globalThis on a next invocation of that context.

To reset all contexts and reboot the whole environment of a specfifc user:

SELECT plv8_reset();

Superusers can kill a specific user environment by impersonating the user:

SET ROLE "some_user";
SELECT plv8_reset();
RESET ROLE;

Building

Building for MacOS/Linux

Building PLV8 for MacOS or Linux has some specific requirements:

Linux

The following packages must be installed to build on Ubuntu or Debian:

The following packages must be installed to build on EL9 or EL8:

Note that some distributions of Linux may have additional requirements. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list.

MacOS

The following packages must be install to build on MacOS:

Downloading Source

Downloading the source code is very straightforward:

$ git clone https://github.com/plv8/plv8
$ cd plv8
$ make

Building

Building is simple:

$ make

This will download v8 and compile it as well.

| Note: If you have multiple versions of PostgreSQL installed like 9.5 and 9.6, Plv8 will only be built for PostgreSQL 9.6. This is because make calls pg_config to get the version number, which will always be the latest version installed. If you need to build Plv8 for PostgreSQL 9.5 while you have 9.6 installed pass make the PG_CONFIG variable to your 9.5 version of pg_config. This works for make, and make install. For example in Ubuntu:

$ make PG_CONFIG=/usr/lib/postgresql/13/bin/pg_config

Building with Execution Timeout

Plv8 allows you to optionally build with an execution timeout for Javascript functions, when enabled at compile-time.

$ make EXECUTION_TIMEOUT=1

By default, the execution timeout is not compiled, but when configured it has a timeout of 300 seconds (5 minutes). You can override this by setting the plv8.execution_timeout variable. It can be set between 1 second and 65536 seconds, but cannot be disabled.

Installing

Once PLV8 has been built, you need to install it for PostgreSQL to be able to use it:

$ make install

This might require root access, depending on how PostgreSQL is installed:

$ sudo make install

Testing

Once PLV8 is installed, you can verify the install by running:

$ make installcheck

Runtime Configuration

PLV8 has some configuration variables that can be set either in postgresql.conf or at runtime using SET.

Variable Description Default
plv8.start_proc PLV8 function to run once when PLV8 is first used none
plv8.icu_data ICU data file directory (when compiled with ICU support) none
plv8.v8_flags V8 engine initialization flags (e.g. --harmony for all current harmony features) none
plv8.execution_timeout V8 execution timeout (when compiled with EXECUTION_TIMEOUT) 300 seconds
plv8.boot_proc Like start_proc above, but can be set by superuser only none
plv8.memory_limit Memory limit for the per-user heap usage on each connection, in MB 256
plv8.context Users can switch to a different global object (globalThis) by using an arbitrary context string none
plv8.context_cache_size Size of the per-user LRU cache for custom contexts 8
plv8.max_eval_size Control how eval() can be used, -1 = no limits, 0 = eval() disabled, any other number = max length of the eval-able string in bytes 2MB

Function Calls

PLV8 has the ability to execute multiple types of function calls inside of PostgreSQL.

Scalar Function Calls

In PLV8, you can write your invoked function call in Javascript, using the usual CREATE FUNCTION statement. Here is an example of a scalar function call:

CREATE FUNCTION plv8_test(keys TEXT[], vals TEXT[]) RETURNS JSON AS $$
    var o = {};
    for(var i=0; i<keys.length; i++){
        o[keys[i]] = vals[i];
    }
    return o;
$$ LANGUAGE plv8 IMMUTABLE STRICT;

=# SELECT plv8_test(ARRAY['name', 'age'], ARRAY['Tom', '29']);

plv8_test
---------------------------
{"name":"Tom","age":"29"}
(1 row)

Internally, the function will defined such as:

(function(keys, vals) {
  var o = {};
  for(var i=0; i<keys.length; i++){
      o[keys[i]] = vals[i];
  }
  return o;
})

Where keys and vals are type checked and validated inside of PostgreSQL, called as arguments to the function, and o is the object that is returned as the JSON type back to PostgreSQL. If argument names are omitted in the creation of the function, they will be available in the function as $1, $2, etc.

Set-returning Function Calls

PLV8 supports returning SET from function calls:

CREATE TYPE rec AS (i integer, t text);
CREATE FUNCTION set_of_records() RETURNS SETOF rec AS
$$
    // plv8.return_next() stores records in an internal tuplestore,
    // and return all of them at the end of function.
    plv8.return_next( { "i": 1, "t": "a" } );
    plv8.return_next( { "i": 2, "t": "b" } );

    // You can also return records with an array of JSON.
    return [ { "i": 3, "t": "c" }, { "i": 4, "t": "d" } ];
$$
LANGUAGE plv8;

Running this gives you a SETOF result:

=# SELECT * FROM set_of_records();

i | t
---+---
1 | a
2 | b
3 | c
4 | d
(4 rows)

Internally, if the function is declared as RETURNS SETOF, PLV8 prepares a tuplestore every time every time it is called. You can call the plv8.return_next() function as many times as you need to return a row. In addition, you can also return an array to add a set of records.

If the argument object to return_next() has extra properties that are not defined by the argument, return_next() raises an error.

Trigger Function Calls

PLV8 supports trigger function calls:

CREATE FUNCTION test_trigger() RETURNS TRIGGER AS
$$
    plv8.elog(NOTICE, "NEW = ", JSON.stringify(NEW));
    plv8.elog(NOTICE, "OLD = ", JSON.stringify(OLD));
    plv8.elog(NOTICE, "TG_OP = ", TG_OP);
    plv8.elog(NOTICE, "TG_ARGV = ", TG_ARGV);
    if (TG_OP == "UPDATE") {
        NEW.i = 102;
        return NEW;
    }
$$
LANGUAGE "plv8";

CREATE TRIGGER test_trigger
    BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE OR DELETE
    ON test_tbl FOR EACH ROW
    EXECUTE PROCEDURE test_trigger('foo', 'bar');

If the trigger type is an INSERT or UPDATE, you can assign properties of NEW variable to change the actual tuple stored by this operation. A PLV8 trigger function will have the following special arguments that contain the trigger state:

For more information see the trigger section in PostgreSQL manual.

Inline Statement Calls

PLV8 supports the DO block when using PostgreSQL 9.0 and above:

DO $$ plv8.elog(NOTICE, 'this', 'is', 'inline', 'code'); $$ LANGUAGE plv8;

Auto Mapping Between Javascript and PostgreSQL Built-in Types

For the result and arguments, PostgreSQL types and Javascript types are mapped automatically, if the desired PostgreSQL type is one of:

and the Javascript value looks compatible, then the conversion succeeds. Otherwise, PLV8 tries to convert them via the cstring representation. An array type is supported only if the dimension is one. A Javascript object will be mapped to a tuple when applicable. In addition to these types, PLV8 supports polymorphic types such like ANYELEMENT and ANYARRAY. Conversion of BYTEA is a little different story. See the TypedArray section.

Typed Array

The typed array is something v8 provides to allow fast access to native memory, mainly for the purpose of their canvas support in browsers. PLV8 uses this to map BYTEA and various array types to a Javascript array. In the case of BYTEA, you can access each byte as an array of unsigned bytes. For int2/int4/float4/float8 array types, PLV8 provides direct access to each element by using PLV8 domain types.

These are only annotations that tell PLV8 to use the fast access method instead of the regular one. For these typed arrays, only 1-dimensional arrays without any NULL elements. There is currently no way to create such typed array inside PLV8 functions, only arguments can be typed array. You can modify the element and return the value. An example for these types are as follows:

CREATE FUNCTION int4sum(ary plv8_int4array) RETURNS int8 AS $$
  var sum = 0;
  for (var i = 0; i < ary.length; i++) {
    sum += ary[i];
  }
  return sum;
$$ LANGUAGE plv8 IMMUTABLE STRICT;

SELECT int4sum(ARRAY[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]);

 int4sum
---------
      15
(1 row)

PLV8 Built-ins

PLV8 includes a number of built-in functions bound to the plv8 object for you to use.

Utility Functions

plv8.elog

plv8.elog emits a message to the client or the PostgreSQL log file. The emit level is one of:

var msg = 'world';

plv8.elog(DEBUG1, 'Hello', `${msg}!`);

See the PostgreSQL manual for information on each error level.

plv8.quote_literal, plv8.nullable, plv8.quote_ident

Each function for the quote family is identical to the built-in SQL function with the same name.

plv8.find_function

PLV8 provides a function to access other functions defined as plv8 functions that have been registered in the database.

CREATE FUNCTION callee(a int) RETURNS int AS $$ return a * a $$ LANGUAGE plv8;
CREATE FUNCTION caller(a int, t int) RETURNS int AS $$
  var func = plv8.find_function("callee");
  return func(a);
$$ LANGUAGE plv8;

With plv8.find_function(), you can look up other PLV8 functions. If they are not a PLV8 function, and error is thrown. The function signature parameter to plv8.find_function() is either of regproc (function name only) or regprocedure (function name with argument types). You can make use of the internal type for arguments and void type for return type for the pure Javascript function to make sure any invocation from SQL statements should not occur.

plv8.version

The plv8 object provides a version string as plv8.version. This string corresponds to the plv8 module version.

plv8.memory_usage

You can get your own memory usage by calling plv8.memory_usage() with no params. The resulting object looks like this:

{
  "total_heap_size":1327104,
  "total_physical_size":472712,
  "used_heap_size":381748,
  "heap_size_limit":270008320,
  "external_memory":0,
  "number_of_native_contexts":2
}

See nodejs v8.getHeapStatistics()

plv8.run_script

Run a script from source code, it's like eval() but takes a second argument: script name
Can be pretty useful for debugging

Can be used like this

const sourceCode = `globalThis.myFunc = () => 42`
try {
    plv8.run_script(sourceCode, 'myScript.js')
    myFunc()
} catch (e) {
    plv8.elog(NOTICE, e.message)
}

Database Access via SPI

PLV8 provides functions for database access, including prepared statements, and cursors.

plv8.execute

plv8.execute(sql [, args])

Executes SQL statements and retrieves the results. The sql argument is required, and the args argument is an optional array containing any arguments passed in the SQL query. For SELECT queries, the returned value is an array of objects. Each object represents one row, with the object properties mapped as column names. For non-SELECT queries, the return result is the number of rows affected.

var json_result = plv8.execute('SELECT * FROM tbl');
var num_affected = plv8.execute('DELETE FROM tbl WHERE price > $1', [ 1000 ]);

plv8.prepare

plv8.prepare(sql [, typenames])

Opens or creates a prepared statement. The typename parameter is an array where each element is a string that corresponds to the PostgreSQL type name for each bind parameter. Returned value is an object of the PreparedPlan type. This object must be freed by plan.free() before leaving the function.

var plan = plv8.prepare('SELECT * FROM tbl WHERE col = $1', [ 'int' ]);
var rows = plan.execute([ 1 ]);
var sum = 0;
for (var i = 0; i < rows.length; i++) {
  sum += rows[i].num;
}
plan.free();

return sum;

PreparedPlan.execute

PreparedPlan.execute([ args ])

Executes the prepared statement. The args parameter is the same as what would be required for plv8.execute(), and can be omitted if the statement does not have any parameters. The result of this method is also the same as plv8.execute().

PreparedPlan.cursor

PreparedPlan.cursor([ args ])

Opens a cursor form the prepared statement. The args parameter is the same as what would be required for plv8.execute() and PreparedPlan.execute(). The returned object is of type Cursor. This must be closed by Cursor.close() before leaving the function.

var plan = plv8.prepare('SELECT * FROM tbl WHERE col = $1', [ 'int' ]);
var cursor = plan.cursor([ 1 ]);
var sum = 0, row;
while (row = cursor.fetch()) {
    sum += row.num;
}
cursor.close();
plan.free();

return sum;

PreparedPlan.free

Frees the prepared statement.

Cursor.fetch

Cursor.fetch([ nrows ])

When the nrows parameter is omitted, fetches a row from the cursor and returns it as an object (note: not as an array). If specified, fetches as many rows as the nrows parameter, up to the number of rows available, and returns an array of objects. A negative value will fetch backward.

Cursor.move

Cursor.move(nrows)

Moves the cursor nrows. A negative value will move backward.

Cursor.close

Closes the Cursor.

plv8.subtransaction

plv8.subtransaction(func)

plv8.execute() creates a subtransaction each time it executes. If you need an atomic operation, you will need to call plv8.subtransaction() to create a subtransaction block.

try{
  plv8.subtransaction(function(){
    plv8.execute("INSERT INTO tbl VALUES(1)"); // should be rolled back!
    plv8.execute("INSERT INTO tbl VALUES(1/0)"); // occurs an exception
  });
} catch(e) {
  ... execute fall back plan ...
}

If one of the SQL execution in the subtransaction block fails, all of operations within the block are rolled back. If the process in the block throws a Javascript exception, it is carried forward. So use a try ... catch block to capture it and do alternative operations if it occurs.

Window Function API

You can define user-defined window functions with PLV8. It wraps the C-level window function API to support full functionality. To create one, first obtain a window object by calling plv8.get_window_object(), which provides the following interfaces:

WindowObject.get_current_position

Returns the current position in the partition, starting from 0.

WindowObject.get_partition_row_count

Returns the number of rows in the partition.

WindowObject.set_mark_position

WindowObject.set_mark_position(pos)

Sets the mark at the specified row. Rows above this position will be gone and no longer accessible later.

WindowObject.rows_are_peers

WindowObject.rows_are_peers(pos1, pos1)

Returns true if the rows at pos1 and pos2 are peers.

WindowObject.get_func_arg_in_partition

WindowObject.get_func_arg_in_partition(argno, relpos, seektype, mark_pos)

WindowObject.get_func_arg_in_frame

WindowObject.get_func_arg_in_frame(argno, relpos, seektype, mark_pos)

Returns the value of the argument in argno (starting from 0) to this function at the relpos row from seektype in the current partition or frame. seektype can be either of WindowObject.SEEK_HEAD, WindowObject.SEEK_CURRENT, or WindowObject.SEEK_TAIL. If mark_pos is true, the row the argument is fetched from is marked. If the specified row is out of the partition/frame, the returned value will be undefined.

WindowObject.get_func_arg_in_current

WindowObject.get_func_arg_in_current(argno)

Returns the value of the argument in argno (starting from 0) to this function at the current row. Note that the returned value will be the same as the argument variable of the function.

WindowObject.get_partition_local

WindowObject.get_partition_local([ size ])

Returns partition-local value, which is released at the end of the current partition. If nothing is stored, undefined is returned. size argument (default 1000) is the byte size of the allocated memory in the first call. Once the memory is allocated, the size will not change.

WindowObject.set_partition_local

WindowObject.set_partition_local(obj)

Stores the partition-local value, which you can retrieve later with get_partition_local(). This function internally uses JSON.stringify() to serialize the object, so if you pass a value that is not able to be serialized it may end up being an unexpected value. If the size of a serialized value is more than the allocated memory, it will throw an exception.

You can also learn more on how to use these API in the sql/window.sql regression test, which implements most of the native window functions. For general information on the user-defined window function, see the CREATE FUNCTION page of the PostgreSQL manual.

External Utilities

Unofficial utilities in the PLV8 ecosystem.

PLV8ify

plv8ify bundles typescript/javascript input and writes SQL file(s) containing Postgres functions using PLV8.

For more information see the project readme.

Equinox

equinox allows for database level unit testing via PLV8.

See https://github.com/JerrySievert/equinox for more information.