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+.\" This is -*-nroff-*-
+.\" XXX standard disclaimer belongs here....
+.\" $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/man/Attic/notify.l,v 1.1.1.1 1996/08/18 22:14:26 scrappy Exp $
+.TH "NOTIFY" SQL 11/05/95 Postgres95 Postgres95
+.SH NAME
+notify \(em signal all frontends and backends listening on a class
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.nf
+\fBnotify\fR class_name
+.fi
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+.BR notify
+is used to awaken all backends and consequently all frontends
+that have executed 
+.IR listen (l)
+on
+.IR class_name .
+This can be used either within an instance-level rule as part of the
+action body or from a normal query.  When used from within a normal
+query, this can be thought of as interprocess communication (IPC).
+When used from within a rule, this can be thought of as an alerter 
+mechanism.
+.PP
+Notice that the mere fact that a 
+.BR notify
+has been executed does not imply anything in particular about
+the state of the class (e.g., that it has been updated), nor
+does the notification protocol transmit any useful information 
+other than the class name.  Therefore, all
+.BR notify
+does is indicate that some backend wishes its peers to examine
+.IR class_name
+in some application-specific way.
+.PP
+This event notification is performed through the Libpq protocol
+and frontend application interface.  The application program
+must explicitly poll a Libpq global variable,
+.IR PQAsyncNotifyWaiting ,
+and call the routine
+.IR PQnotifies
+in order to find out the name of the class to which a given
+notification corresponds.  If this code is not included in 
+the application, the event notification will be queued and 
+never be processed.
+.SH "SEE ALSO"
+define rule(l),
+listen(l),
+libpq.