Re: SYSTEM_USER reserved word implementation

Hi,

On 6/22/22 6:32 PM, Joe Conway wrote:
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> On 6/22/22 12:28, Tom Lane wrote:
>> Joe Conway <mail@joeconway.com> writes:
>>> On 6/22/22 11:52, Tom Lane wrote:
>>>> I think a case could be made for ONLY returning non-null when authn_id
>>>> represents some externally-verified identifier (OS user ID gotten via
>>>> peer identification, Kerberos principal, etc).
>>
>>> But -1 on that.
>>
>>> I think any time we have a non-null authn_id we should expose it. Are
>>> there examples of cases when we have authn_id but for some reason don't
>>> trust the value of it?
>>
>> I'm more concerned about whether we have a consistent story about what
>> SYSTEM_USER means (another way of saying "what type is it").  If it's
>> just the same as SESSION_USER it doesn't seem like we've added much.
>>
>> Maybe, instead of just being the raw user identifier, it should be
>> something like "auth_method:user_identifier" so that one can tell
>> what the identifier actually is and how it was verified.
>
> Oh, that's an interesting thought -- I like that.
>
Thanks Joe and Tom for your feedback.

I like this idea too and that's also more aligned with what 
log_connections set to on would report (aka the auth method).

Baring any objections, I'll work on that idea.

Bertrand