Re: [HACKERS] read-only database

Tom Lane wrote:
> Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@dcc.uchile.cl> writes:
> > The ability to have PGDATA in read-only media (like CDs) has been
> > requested a lot of times, hasn't it?
>
> It's come up a few times ... more than an un-overridable read-only mode
> anyway.  Also, I should think that those who want a secure read-only
> mode want it enforced selectively --- for instance, assuredly read-only
> for some users but not others.  I can hardly see any use case for the
> patch as proposed; it seems to have all the disadvantages of a low-level
> read-only mode (eg, not selective) without any of the advantages.

Having removed our security for not allowing override of things like
log_statement, it seems we need a more general capability for
controlling how something can be set that no one can change.

One nify trick would be to use '=' in postgresql.conf for things that
can be over-ridden by the user, and ':=' for values that can not be
changed.  I do think we need that functionality for a variety of
purposes.

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