<para>
Finally, all variable-length types must also be passed
by reference. All variable-length types must begin
- with a length field of exactly 4 bytes, and all data to
+ with an opaque length field of exactly 4 bytes, which will be set
+ by SET_VARSIZE; never set this field directly! All data to
be stored within that type must be located in the memory
immediately following that length field. The
length field contains the total length of the structure,
]]>
</programlisting>
- <literal>VARHDRSZ</> is the same as <literal>sizeof(int4)</>, but
+ <literal>VARHDRSZ</> is the same as <literal>sizeof(int32)</>, but
it's considered good style to use the macro <literal>VARHDRSZ</>
to refer to the size of the overhead for a variable-length type.
Also, the length field <emphasis>must</> be set using the