Re: Curious situation - running program cannot seem to delete records.

[btober(at)ct(dot)metrocast(dot)net]

Andrew Edson wrote:
> I've been given a file to maintain, the purpose of which is to purge the database of records more than two years old.  (Database setup is pg 8.1.3)
>    
>   The program (written in perl) enters postgres as the user 'postgres', and is supposed to select foreign-key records from all tables that link together with a table which has a delete_dt field in it, so long as the delete_dt value (timestamp with time zone) is more than two years old.  It then, within a running loop, is supposed to table-by-table delete all records where the value of the key in question matches the returned value.  

Why don't you use ON DELETE CASCADE foreign key constraints?  Let the 
data base handle all this work rather than maintaining a complicated 
external Perl script which might get out if sync with the data base as 
data base design changes are implemented. You don't even need Perl at 
all, actually: Have cron fire a very simple shell command using psql to 
invoke the delete command against the primary key table (the one with 
the delete_dt field), and let the foreign key constraints take care of, 
... well..., the foreign key references.