Horton

Re: Possibility to disable `ALTER SYSTEM`

Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>

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From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
To: Jelte Fennema-Nio <postgres@jeltef.nl>
Cc: Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>, Heikki Linnakangas <hlinnaka@iki.fi>, PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>, Daniel Gustafsson <daniel@yesql.se>, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>, Joel Jacobson <joel@compiler.org>, Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net>, Gabriele Bartolini <gabriele.bartolini@enterprisedb.com>, Magnus Hagander <magnus.hagander@redpill-linpro.com>, Maciek Sakrejda <m.sakrejda@gmail.com>
Date: 2024-03-25T21:04:31Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers

Commits

Same data as JSON: GET /api/v1/messages/:b64id/commits the thread's linked commits as JSON, with link sources. API reference →

  1. Add allow_alter_system GUC.

  2. Rename COMPAT_OPTIONS_CLIENT to COMPAT_OPTIONS_OTHER.

  3. Remove support for version-0 calling conventions.

On Mon, Mar 25, 2024 at 09:40:55PM +0100, Jelte Fennema-Nio wrote:
> On Mon, 25 Mar 2024 at 20:16, Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote:
> > I am wondering if the fact that you would be able to do:
> >
> >         ALTER SYSTEM SET externally_managed_configuration = false
> >
> > and then be unable to use ALTER SYSTEM to revert the change is
> > significant.
> 
> This is not possible, due to the externally_managed_configuration GUC
> having the GUC_DISALLOW_IN_AUTO_FILE flag.

Ah, good, thanks.

> > Isn't "configuration" too generic a term for disabling ALTER SYSTEM?
> 
> maybe "externally_managed_auto_config"

How many people associate "auto" with ALTER SYSTEM?  I assume not many. 

To me, externally_managed_configuration is promising a lot more than it
delivers because there is still a lot of ocnfiguration it doesn't
control.  I am also confused why the purpose of the feature, external
management of configuation, is part of the variable name.  We usually
name parameters for what they control.

It seems this is really controlling the ability to alter system
variables at the SQL level, maybe sql_alter_system_vars.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        https://momjian.us
  EDB                                      https://enterprisedb.com

  Only you can decide what is important to you.