Split line using line/point in PostGIS 1.5

Question

I have a layer that contains a master line (one big polyline) and a another layer that contains "break lines". I need to be able to split the master line at the intersection of each of these break lines.

I'm looking for a PostGIS 1.5 version of ST_Split. If I could upgrade to 2.0 I would but can't really do that at this point in time.

I thought this would be relatively easy but can't seem to find anything; or when I do it's just related to polygons being split with polylines.

Note A spatialite answer is OK

Answer 1

ST_Difference(master_line, break_lines) looks like it'll do this for you: http://www.postgis.org/documentation/manual-1.5/ST_Difference.html

# SELECT ST_AsText(ST_Difference(
                       ST_GeomFromText('LINESTRING(0 100, 0 -100)'),
                       ST_GeomFromText('LINESTRING(-100 0, 100 0)')));
                 st_astext                 
-------------------------------------------
 MULTILINESTRING((0 100,0 0),(0 0,0 -100))
(1 row)