Re: Fix unqualified catalog references in psql describe queries

Hi,

On Tue, Jun 09, 2026 at 10:12:48PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> Michael Paquier <michael(at)paquier(dot)xyz> writes:
> > On Tue, Jun 09, 2026 at 09:08:50AM +0000, Bertrand Drouvot wrote:
> >> Now I wonder if we shoud not "protect" the operators too. They could also
> >> lead to wrong results (if not worst).
>
> > Kind of true. Still we have been pretty lax about the operators as
> > they also lead to less readable queries.
>
> We disclaimed security against odd search_paths for these queries long ago,
> precisely because wrapping every operator in PG_OPERATOR(pg_catalog.*)
> would be far too tedious and destructive of readability --- not to
> mention that there are some syntaxes such as IN that don't even offer
> the option to do that.

I do agree that doing so would "destroy" the readability. I did not look in detail,
but what about forcing ALWAYS_SECURE_SEARCH_PATH_SQL before the queries and
restore the search_path once the query is done? (that way that would not impact
the readability)

Regards,

--
Bertrand Drouvot
PostgreSQL Contributors Team
RDS Open Source Databases
Amazon Web Services: https://aws.amazon.com