Re: is_superuser versus set_config_option's parallelism check

On Fri, Aug 09, 2024 at 04:04:15PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> Nathan Bossart <nathandbossart@gmail.com> writes:
>> From a couple of quick tests, it looks like setting
>> "current_role_is_superuser" directly works.
> 
> Yeah, I had been thinking along the same lines.  Here's a draft
> patch.  (Still needs some attention to nearby comments, and I can't
> avoid the impression that the miscinit.c code in this area could
> use refactoring.)

Hm.  That's a bit more code than I expected.

> A problem with this is that it couldn't readily be back-patched
> further than v14, since we didn't have ReportChangedGUCOptions
> before that.  Maybe that doesn't matter; given the lack of
> previous complaints, maybe we only need to fix this in HEAD.

Another option might be to introduce a new GUC flag or source for anything
we want to bypass the check (perhaps with the stipulation that it must also
be marked PGC_INTERNAL).  I think a new flag would require moving the
parallel check down a stanza, but that seems fine.  A new source would
allow us to limit the damage to specific SetConfigOption() call-sites, but
I haven't thought through that idea fully.

-- 
nathan