Re: ERROR: translation failed from server encoding to wchar_t

I am using tsearch2 with pgsql 8.2.5 and get the following error when
calling to_tsvector :
"translation failed from server encoding to wchar_t"

My database is UTF8 encoded and the data sent to to_tsvector comes
from a bytea column converted to text with
encode(COLUMN, 'escape').

In 8.1 with tsearch2 it worked perfectly ...

Thanks for you help,

ilan

http://pastebin.ca/845670

This url provides a testcase ...

fisrt pass :
=> UPDATE dbmail_messageblks SET idxFTI=to_tsvector('simple',
encode(messageblk, 'escape')) where messageblk_idnr = 12949;
ERROR: translation failed from server encoding to wchar_t

second pass :
=> UPDATE dbmail_messageblks SET idxFTI=to_tsvector('simple',
encode(messageblk, 'escape')) where messageblk_idnr = 12949;
UPDATE 1

The to_tsvector seems to accept the row at random ...

On Jan 7, 9:16 pm, ila(dot)(dot)(dot)(at)gmail(dot)com wrote:
> I am using tsearch2 with pgsql 8.2.5 and get the following error when
> calling to_tsvector :
> "translation failed from server encoding to wchar_t"
>
> My database is UTF8 encoded and the data sent to to_tsvector comes
> from a bytea column converted to text with
> encode(COLUMN, 'escape').
>
> In 8.1 with tsearch2 it worked perfectly ...
>
> Thanks for you help,
>
> ilan

Found something interesting with this testcase.
update fails after SELECT query.
Can anyone confirm this ???

dbname=> UPDATE dbmail_messageblks SET idxFTI=to_tsvector('simple',
encode(messageblk, 'escape')) where messageblk_idnr = 12949;
UPDATE 1
dbname=> UPDATE dbmail_messageblks SET idxFTI=to_tsvector('simple',
encode(messageblk, 'escape')) where messageblk_idnr = 12949;
UPDATE 1
dbname=> select * from dbmail_messageblks where messageblk_idnr =
12949;
messageblk_idnr | physmessage_id
|
messageblk
| blocksize | is_header |
idxfti
-----------------+----------------
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-----------+-----------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12949 | 6319 | l'\351quipe de Casinos-park a bien
re\347u votre messsage. \012\012Vous aurez une r\351ponse d\350s que
l'un de nos responsables aura pris connaissance de votre envoi.
\012\012cordialement\012\012l'\351quipe de casinos-park.
\012\012====================\012\012The team of Casinos-park received
your messsage.\012\012You will have an answer as soon as one of our
persons in charge takes note of your sending. \012\012Best regards
\012\012The team of casinos-park.\012 | 398 | 0 | '=':3
'e':5 'h':11 'i':2,10 'k':12 'l':1 'o':7 'p':9,16 'r':8 's':6 't':13
'u':15 'y':14 'rk':4
(1 row)

dbname=> UPDATE dbmail_messageblks SET idxFTI=to_tsvector('simple',
encode(messageblk, 'escape')) where messageblk_idnr = 12949;
ERROR: translation failed from server encoding to wchar_t
dbname=> UPDATE dbmail_messageblks SET idxFTI=to_tsvector('simple',
encode(messageblk, 'escape')) where messageblk_idnr = 12949;
UPDATE 1

On Jan 7, 10:21 pm, ila(dot)(dot)(dot)(at)gmail(dot)com wrote:
> http://pastebin.ca/845670
>
> This url provides a testcase ...
>
> fisrt pass :
> => UPDATE dbmail_messageblks SET idxFTI=to_tsvector('simple',
> encode(messageblk, 'escape')) where messageblk_idnr = 12949;
> ERROR: translation failed from server encoding to wchar_t
>
> second pass :
> => UPDATE dbmail_messageblks SET idxFTI=to_tsvector('simple',
> encode(messageblk, 'escape')) where messageblk_idnr = 12949;
> UPDATE 1
>
> The to_tsvector seems to accept the row at random ...
>
> On Jan 7, 9:16 pm, ila(dot)(dot)(dot)(at)gmail(dot)com wrote:
>
> > I am using tsearch2 with pgsql 8.2.5 and get the following error when
> > calling to_tsvector :
> > "translation failed from server encoding to wchar_t"
>
> > My database is UTF8 encoded and the data sent to to_tsvector comes
> > from a bytea column converted to text with
> > encode(COLUMN, 'escape').
>
> > In 8.1 with tsearch2 it worked perfectly ...
>
> > Thanks for you help,
>
> > ilan

http://pastebin.ca/845696
added schema ...
On Jan 7, 10:21 pm, ila(dot)(dot)(dot)(at)gmail(dot)com wrote:
> http://pastebin.ca/845670
>
> This url provides a testcase ...
>
> fisrt pass :
> => UPDATE dbmail_messageblks SET idxFTI=to_tsvector('simple',
> encode(messageblk, 'escape')) where messageblk_idnr = 12949;
> ERROR: translation failed from server encoding to wchar_t
>
> second pass :
> => UPDATE dbmail_messageblks SET idxFTI=to_tsvector('simple',
> encode(messageblk, 'escape')) where messageblk_idnr = 12949;
> UPDATE 1
>
> The to_tsvector seems to accept the row at random ...
>
> On Jan 7, 9:16 pm, ila(dot)(dot)(dot)(at)gmail(dot)com wrote:
>
> > I am using tsearch2 with pgsql 8.2.5 and get the following error when
> > calling to_tsvector :
> > "translation failed from server encoding to wchar_t"
>
> > My database is UTF8 encoded and the data sent to to_tsvector comes
> > from a bytea column converted to text with
> > encode(COLUMN, 'escape').
>
> > In 8.1 with tsearch2 it worked perfectly ...
>
> > Thanks for you help,
>
> > ilan

ilanco(at)gmail(dot)com writes:
> I am using tsearch2 with pgsql 8.2.5 and get the following error when
> calling to_tsvector :
> "translation failed from server encoding to wchar_t"

> My database is UTF8 encoded and the data sent to to_tsvector comes
> from a bytea column converted to text with
> encode(COLUMN, 'escape').

Two likely theories:

1. Your database encoding is UTF-8, but your locale (LC_CTYPE) assumes
some other encoding.

2. The encode() is yielding something that isn't valid UTF-8.

PG 8.3 contains checks that should complain about both of these
scenarios, but IIRC 8.2 does not.

regards, tom lane

On Jan 8, 4:14 am, t(dot)(dot)(dot)(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us (Tom Lane) wrote:
> ila(dot)(dot)(dot)(at)gmail(dot)com writes:
> > I am using tsearch2 with pgsql 8.2.5 and get the following error when
> > calling to_tsvector :
> > "translation failed from server encoding to wchar_t"
> > My database is UTF8 encoded and the data sent to to_tsvector comes
> > from a bytea column converted to text with
> > encode(COLUMN, 'escape').
>
> Two likely theories:
>
> 1. Your database encoding is UTF-8, but your locale (LC_CTYPE) assumes
> some other encoding.
>
> 2. The encode() is yielding something that isn't valid UTF-8.
>
> PG 8.3 contains checks that should complain about both of these
> scenarios, but IIRC 8.2 does not.
>
> regards, tom lane
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate
> subscribe-nomail command to majord(dot)(dot)(dot)(at)postgresql(dot)org so that your
> message can get through to the mailing list cleanly

Dear Tom,

Thanks for your reply.
This is the output of `locale` on my system :
# locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

As for your second scenario I guess you are right, it's possible
encode does not return all UTF8 characters.
But to_tsvector() succeeds and fails at random with this kind of
characters...
So how can I sanitize output from encode before I pipe it to
to_tsvector() ?

Regards,

Ilan

On Jan 8, 10:43 am, ila(dot)(dot)(dot)(at)gmail(dot)com wrote:
> On Jan 8, 4:14 am, t(dot)(dot)(dot)(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us (Tom Lane) wrote:
>
>
>
> > ila(dot)(dot)(dot)(at)gmail(dot)com writes:
> > > I am using tsearch2 with pgsql 8.2.5 and get the following error when
> > > calling to_tsvector :
> > > "translation failed from server encoding to wchar_t"
> > > My database is UTF8 encoded and the data sent to to_tsvector comes
> > > from a bytea column converted to text with
> > > encode(COLUMN, 'escape').
>
> > Two likely theories:
>
> > 1. Your database encoding is UTF-8, but your locale (LC_CTYPE) assumes
> > some other encoding.
>
> > 2. The encode() is yielding something that isn't valid UTF-8.
>
> > PG 8.3 contains checks that should complain about both of these
> > scenarios, but IIRC 8.2 does not.
>
> > regards, tom lane
>
> > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> > TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate
> > subscribe-nomail command to majord(dot)(dot)(dot)(at)postgresql(dot)org so that your
> > message can get through to the mailing list cleanly
>
> Dear Tom,
>
> Thanks for your reply.
> This is the output of `locale` on my system :
> # locale
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_ALL=
>
> As for your second scenario I guess you are right, it's possible
> encode does not return all UTF8 characters.
> But to_tsvector() succeeds and fails at random with this kind of
> characters...
> So how can I sanitize output from encode before I pipe it to
> to_tsvector() ?
>
> Regards,
>
> Ilan

Tom,

To get around the non-UTF8 chars I used following function :

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION u_messageblk_idxfti() RETURNS "trigger"
AS $$
DECLARE
BEGIN
RAISE NOTICE '[DBMAIL] Trying ID %', NEW.messageblk_idnr;
BEGIN
NEW.idxFTI := to_tsvector('simple', encode($x$E$x$||
NEW.messageblk, 'escape'));
RAISE NOTICE '[DBMAIL] Ended ID %', NEW.messageblk_idnr;
RETURN NEW;
EXCEPTION
WHEN character_not_in_repertoire THEN
RAISE WARNING '[DBMAIL] character_not_in_repertoire ID %',
NEW.messageblk_idnr;
NEW.idxFTI := to_tsvector('simple',
'character_not_in_repertoire: This email contains illegal
characters.');
RETURN NEW;
END;
END;
$$
LANGUAGE plpgsql;

Hope this helps others with DBmail and tsearch2 on postgres 8.2

Thanks for your help Tom,

ilan

ilanco(at)gmail(dot)com wrote:
> NEW.idxFTI := to_tsvector('simple', encode($x$E$x$||
> NEW.messageblk, 'escape'));
>
>

I strongly doubt that this does what you think it does - I would check
the results if I were you. The $x$E$x$ should almost certainly not be
there - if you are trying to get E'foo' behaviour, that is purely for
literals. All you are doing here is to prepend a literal 'E' to your value.

cheers

andrew