Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> writes:
> Well, can you assume that if you have a problem with one of your ALTER
> SYSTEM SET commands, that disabling _all_ of them is going to get you a
> running system? I question that, e.g. port. With postgresql.conf, you
> can modify the bad entry, but how would that happen with ALTER SYSTEM
> SET?
I think we already have consensus that the settings will be in text files,
so that system breakage can be handled by editing the files.
What Josh seems to be concerned with in this thread is the question of
whether we should support an installation *policy decision* not to allow
ALTER SYSTEM SET. Not because a particular set of parameters is broken,
but just because somebody is afraid the DBA might break things. TBH
I'm not sure I buy that, at least not as long as ALTER SYSTEM is a
superuser feature. There is nothing in Postgres that denies permissions
to superusers, and this doesn't seem like a very good place to start.
regards, tom lane
