Re: pgsql: Prevent running pg_basebackup as root

Hi,

On 2020-02-06 13:02:07 +0100, Magnus Hagander wrote:
> I agree with Stephen that this seems to be misguided, and my vote is
> to revert.

+1. I honestly don't think we should increase the number of "root
disallowed" tools unless actually necessary.

Maybe that's looking too far into the future, but I'd like to see
improvements to pg_basebackup that make it integrate with root requiring
tooling, to do more efficient base backups. E.g. having pg_basebackup
handle start/stop backup and WAL handling, but do the actual backup of
the data via a snapshot mechanism (yes, one needs start/stop backup in
the general case, for multiple FSs), would be nice.

Btw, I think it's good form in a discussion like this to CC the original
author. I'll also add a reference to this discussion from the -hackers
thread.

Greetings,

Andres Freund