Re: allow_system_table_mods stuff

On Fri, Jun 21, 2019 at 4:37 PM Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> This line of thought leads to the conclusion that we do want
> separate "allow_system_table_dml" and "allow_system_table_ddl"
> bools. Otherwise, the backwards-compatibility hack would need
> to turn on a level of unsafety that extension scripts have *not*
> had before and surely shouldn't have by default.

Right, exactly.

I'm repeating myself, but I still think it's super-useful to
distinguish things which are "for expert use only" from things which
are "totally bonkers." You can argue that if you're an expert, you
should know enough to avoid the totally bonkers things, but PostgreSQL
is pretty popular these days [citation needed] and there are a lot of
people administering databases who know what they are doing to a
pretty reasonable degree but don't have anywhere near the level of
understanding of someone who spends their days hacking core. Putting
up some kind of a stop sign that lets you know when you're about to go
from adventurous to lethal will help those people.

--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company