Re: TODO: Add a GUC to control whether BEGIN inside - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

Robert Treat <xzilla@users.sourceforge.net> writes:
> I thought this was needed for spec compliance?

BEGIN isn't in the spec at all ...

Now you could point to the spec for START TRANSACTION, which saith
        1) If a <start transaction statement> statement is executed when an           SQL-transaction is currently
active,then an exception condition           is raised: invalid transaction state - active SQL-transaction.
 

However, seeing that the spec doesn't think that an exception necessarily
aborts the transaction, I think the case for saying that ERROR is more
spec-compliant here than WARNING is mighty thin.

And if you want to hold our feet to the fire about whether errors abort
transactions or not, this particular point is not one thousandth part
of what would need to change.
        regards, tom lane