Re: custom variable classes

Added to TODO:

* Allow custom variable classes that can restrict who can set the values

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2006-11/msg00911.php

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Tom Lane wrote:
> Andrew Dunstan <andrew(at)dunslane(dot)net> writes:
> > One thing I want to look at for 8.3 is improving custom variable
> > classes. Right now these are all user settable, which makes them quite
> > inappropriate for security related settings (such as which perl modules
> > to load for use by trusted plperl). I'm wondering if we should perhaps
> > allow something like:
>
> > custom_variable_classes = 'foo'
> > foo:<security_level>.bar = 'blurfl'
>
> This seems really ugly --- for one thing, what if the DBA gets it wrong?
>
> The value won't mean anything until the code that uses it gets loaded,
> at which time the correct GucContext for the variable will be supplied.
> How about we just compare that to the current definition source of the
> value, and if we see it's been set improperly, revert the value to
> default?
>
> It might also be a good idea to disallow ALTER USER/DATABASE SET for a
> custom variable that's a placeholder, since we don't at that time know
> if the value should be SUSET or not; and there seems no pressing need to
> allow these ALTERs to be done without having loaded the defining module.
>
> [ thinks for a bit... ] With that provision in place, I think it would
> be safe to revert to the "reset" value instead of the wired-in default,
> which would be marginally nicer.
>
> regards, tom lane
>
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