Re: text_pattern_ops and complex regexps

Tom Lane wrote:
> Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@commandprompt.com> writes:
>   
>> I think changeable regex flavors turned out to be a bad idea.  They can
>> wreak all sorts of havoc.  You change the setting, SIGHUP, and suddenly
>> your application fails to work as expected.  Maybe we should make that
>> setting PGC_POSTMASTER (or just get rid of it?), and provide was to pass
>> flags to change the flavor for particular operations (this is easy for
>> function-based stuff but not so easy for operators).  That way it
>> doesn't intrude in stuff like cached plans and so on.
>>     
>
> Maybe so.  I think it was originally intended mostly as a
> backwards-compatibility measure when we added the support for ARE
> flavor.  It's pretty likely that no one changes the flavor setting
> in practice anymore.  If we just locked it down as "advanced always"
> then we could simplify the documentation by a measurable amount ...
>
>             
>   

I know of at least one significant client (OpenACS) that still 
apparently requires extended flavor. Removing the compatibility option 
would be a major pain point for some of my clients. PGC_POSTMASTER would 
be fine, though.

cheers

andrew