Re: [PATCH] Add inline comments to the pg_hba_file_rules view

On 04.09.23 11:54, Jim Jones wrote:
> This patch proposes the column "comment" to the pg_hba_file_rules view.
> It basically parses the inline comment (if any) of a valid pg_hba.conf
> entry and displays it in the new column.
>
> For such pg_hba entries ...
>
> host db jim 127.0.0.1/32 md5 # foo
> host db jim 127.0.0.1/32 md5 #bar
> host db jim 127.0.0.1/32 md5 #     #foo#

I'm skeptical about this.

First, there are multiple commenting styles. The end-of-line style is
less common in my experience, because pg_hba.conf lines tend to belong.
Another style is

# foo
host db jim 127.0.0.1/32 md5
# bar
host db jim 127.0.0.1/32 md5

or even as a block

# foo and bar
host db jim 127.0.0.1/32 md5
host db jim 127.0.0.1/32 md5

Another potential problem is that maybe people don't want their comments
leaked out of the file. Who knows what they have written in there.

I think we should leave file comments be file comments. If we want some
annotations to be exported to higher-level views, we should make that an
intentional and explicit separate feature.