SET [ SESSION | LOCAL ] SESSION AUTHORIZATION username
SET [ SESSION | LOCAL ] SESSION AUTHORIZATION DEFAULT
RESET SESSION AUTHORIZATION
This command sets the session user identifier and the current
user identifier of the current SQL session to be username. The user name may be written as
either an identifier or a string literal. The session user
identifier is valid for the duration of a connection; for
example, it is possible to temporarily become an unprivileged
user and later switch back to become a superuser.
The session user identifier is initially set to be the (possibly authenticated) user name provided by the client. The current user identifier is normally equal to the session user identifier, but might change temporarily in the context of SECURITY DEFINER functions and similar mechanisms. The current user identifier is relevant for permission checking.
The session user identifier may be changed only if the initial session user (the authenticated user) had the superuser privilege. Otherwise, the command is accepted only if it specifies the authenticated user name.
The SESSION and LOCAL modifiers act the same as for the regular
SET command.
The DEFAULT and RESET forms reset the session and current user identifiers to be the originally authenticated user name. These forms are always accepted.
SELECT SESSION_USER, CURRENT_USER; current_user | session_user --------------+-------------- peter | peter SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION 'paul'; SELECT SESSION_USER, CURRENT_USER; current_user | session_user --------------+-------------- paul | paul
SQL99
SQL99 allows some other expressions to appear in place of the
literal username which are not
important in practice. PostgreSQL allows identifier syntax
("username"), which SQL does not. SQL
does not allow this command during a transaction; PostgreSQL does not make this restriction
because there is no reason to. The privileges necessary to
execute this command are left implementation-defined by the
standard.