O$: PostgreSQL setting the $programname property

Fri Nov 17 15:08:59 UTC 2023

It took some convincing, but an enhancement request has been raised: 
ST/*P/124

As a workaround, you could set the $programname property before using 
the $logon() method.
The listener process will use this as application_name, same as the 
original connection.
Afterwards, you can rename the original connection with the "SET 
application_name = ..." command, but not the listener connection.

Nick Renders

On 16 Nov 2023, at 14:54, Doug Easterbrook wrote:

> there is no way that I know of to set that name.
>
> I’d like to do it too,   can you raise an enhancement with Omnis 
> Support
>
>
>
>
> Doug Easterbrook
> Arts Management Systems Ltd.
> mailto:doug at artsman.com
> http://www.artsman.com
> Phone (403) 650-1978
>
>> On Nov 16, 2023, at 1:53 AM, Nick Renders <omnis1 at arcict.com> 
>> wrote:
>>
>> On a related note: does anyone know how to set the application_name 
>> for a listener?
>> If I am not mistaken, the PGSQLSESSION.$listen() method opens a 
>> second connection to the Postgres server.
>> But I don't see any option to set the application_name of that 
>> connection.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Nick Renders
>>
>>
>> On 6 Nov 2023, at 16:10, Doug Easterbrook via omnisdev-en wrote:
>>
>>> hi Paul.
>>>
>>> Like Alex, methinks you are speaking of the application_name column 
>>> from select * from pg_stat_activity.
>>>
>>> I spoke about this at euromnis and put the example in my demo code.
>>>
>>> We set (and reset) the application_name at various times while our 
>>> application is running.  We also set it in background workers as one 
>>> of the first commands in the list of sql sent to the postgres 
>>> worker.     Been ding this for close to a decade and its proved 
>>> useful
>>>
>>> why?
>>>
>>> Most times, I don’t really care what the user is doing.   But if 
>>> the user is doing some sensitive task like posting a whole lot of 
>>> stuff to accounting, or running a big import, or merging a lot of 
>>> data together, I wanted a way to know:
>>> who might be sucking up cpu
>>> what they were up to
>>> and if they were doing something that I might not want to kill 
>>> remotely in some sort of deadlock situation.   eg, if you are 
>>> posting to accounting, thats the last thing I’d do.
>>>
>>> I also want to know if
>>> 1) they are sitting at the ‘login’ window so that I don’t 
>>> count them towards using a licence.   so I set a state for that.
>>> 2) if they were using a thread, and it died, and if they reconnected 
>>> to the database in our recovery procedures.  At one time we were 
>>> having a tough time with network instability at a couple of client 
>>> sites that I simply wanted to know this — so I could manage 
>>> connections if need be.
>>> 3) if they issued a long running find (in background worker) and 
>>> thne asked for another find (which we send to postgres, killing the 
>>> prior thread) so we don’t have too many threads.
>>> 4) what version of omnis they are using if we have not forced them 
>>> to update
>>>
>>>
>>> anyway, the point is, there are lots of reasons to know roughly what 
>>> state the user is in and what they are doing.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> you can set the application_name at any time by issuing the sql 
>>> command.   I think yo’ve got 50 characters).
>>>
>>>
>>> set application_name='What you want to say'
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> in general, we make our application_name look something useful to us 
>>> like
>>>
>>> TM Desktop xx.yy.zz. (Darwin-M1-32052) - Posting
>>> TM Desktop xx.yy.zz. (Darwin-32052) - Login
>>> TM Desktop xx.yy.zz. (Darwin-32052) - Worker
>>> TM Server xx.yy.zz (windows-31983) - Housekeeper
>>> TM Server xx.yy.xx (linux-31905) - Reporter
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> the gist is:
>>> — TM Desktop or TM Server means fat client on some ultra thin 
>>> client server process
>>> — xx.yy.zz the version of our program (so I can see if people got 
>>> upgraded during a release)
>>> — (Darwin/Windows/Linux- so that I know if the platform, hardware 
>>> they are using
>>> — 32052) to tell me the release number of omnis they are running 
>>> (eg 32502, 32983, 31905 for 10.22.32502 etc)
>>> — and a final note to tell me roughly what they are doing.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> again, you can set these at any time by sending the sql command, so 
>>> we generally set this
>>> — once on start of the application.  eg.  TM Desktop xx.yy.zz. 
>>> (Darwin-32052) - Login
>>> — a second time after they log in. eg      TM Desktop xx.yy.zz. 
>>> (Darwin-32052)
>>> —  and then maybe a couple of times if they do something I don’t 
>>> want to interrupt
>>>
>>> and I also set it to this each time I start a worker:    TM Desktop 
>>> xx.yy.zz. (Darwin-32052) - Worker
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> hope that helps about the HOW and the WHY we do it.   it has come in 
>>> handy more times than I can say.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Doug Easterbrook
>>> Arts Management Systems Ltd.
>>> mailto:doug at artsman.com
>>> http://www.artsman.com
>>> Phone (403) 650-1978
>>>
>>>> On Nov 5, 2023, at 11:25 PM, Paul Mulroney 
>>>> <pmulroney at logicaldevelopments.com.au> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi Everyone,
>>>>
>>>> Has anyone tried to use the $programname property of a PGSession 
>>>> object?  I'd like to tell Postgres the application that's running 
>>>> (eg Omnis), so that I can see it in the pg_stat_activity table, but 
>>>> I can't seem to get it to work.
>>>>
>>>> I'm basically doing this:
>>>>
>>>> Calculate voSession.$programname as 'Fred'
>>>>
>>>> Am I missing anything?
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Paul.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I remember the first time I saw a universal remote control … I 
>>>> though to myself "Well, this changes everything"
>>>> -- 
>>>> Paul W. Mulroney                                            We 
>>>> Don't Do Simple Pty Ltd
>>>> pmulroney at logicaldevelopments.com.au       Trading as Logical 
>>>> Developments
>>>> www.logicaldevelopments.com.au                   ACN 161 009 374
>>>> Ph: +61 8 9458 3889                                       86 
>>>> Coolgardie Street
>>>>                                                                        BENTLEY 
>>>>  WA  6102
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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Nick Renders

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