Generating random bytea values in PostgreSQL

While playing around with answering an interesting question on dba.stackexchange.com I wrote a simple C extension to PostgreSQL that generates random bytea values of a user-specified size. Fast.

In case anyone else is looking for a good way to dummy up random binary data in PostgreSQL, you can find the code in my scrapcode repository on GitHub

See the extension's README for details.

There's a pure SQL version fast enough to use for generating a few 100s of KB of data, too, or a couple of MB if you're patient.

Arquillian initially overpromises and frustrates, but delivers real benefits

Arquillian is changing fairly rapidly, and the Arquillian folks are paying a lot of attention to feedback. This post discusses Arquillian 1.0.0.Final, and more importantly the ShinkWrap Resolver and ShrinkWrap Dependency extensions. A lot has already improved since I wrote this, though most of it hasn't hit -Final versions yet.

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After seeing a lot of talk, hype and excitement about Arquillian on twitter for several months, I finally got around to introducing it into a new project to give it a try. I'm told it'll make testing massively easier and save me tons of time, so using it is a no-brainer.

Tweet to @craigdevel After my recent experience I recommend that you start using it too - but you'll need to be prepared for some rough edges and the need for workarounds until a few point releases have gone by.

To jump straight to the summary of it all, click here, or read on for the whole experience.