On 11/20/13, 10:48 AM, Tom Lane wrote:
> Perhaps more to the point, I think this approach actually breaks one of
> the principal good-thing-in-emergencies attributes of standalone mode,
> namely being sure that nobody but you can connect. With this, you're
> right back to having a race condition as to whether your psql command
> gets to the socket before somebody else.
I don't disagree, except maybe about the relative gravity of the various
competing concerns. But I want to see if we can split the proposed
patch into smaller, more acceptable parts.
There is elegance in being able to start a standalone backend from libpq
connection parameters. But there are also security concerns and some
general concerns about promoting an embedded database mode.
If we allow single-user backends to speak protocol over sockets, then we
have at least solved the problem of being able to use standard tools in
emergency mode. And I don't think it precludes adding some of the other
functionality later.
