On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 12:59 AM, Rob Wultsch <wultsch@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 7:24 PM, Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net> wrote:
>> In fact it's possible now to disable FK enforcement, by disabling the
>> triggers. It's definitely a footgun though. Just the other day I was asked
>> how data violating the constraint could have got into the table, and caused
>> some surprise by demonstrating how easy this was to produce.
>
> Ugh. I have read the entire pg manual and I did not recall that
> footgun. At least in MySQL disabling fk's is explicit. There is
> something to be said for being able to tell the database: "Hey, hold
> my beer and watch this, it might be stupid but it is what we are going
> to do".
I couldn't agree more, and that's a great way to put it. The user is
in charge. Our job is to prevent the user from *accidentally*
shooting themselves in the foot. But if a crocodile is biting their
foot off and they want to fire their gun in that direction and take
their chances, it's not our job to say "oh, no, you might injure your
foot". DBAs hate getting eaten by crocodiles.
--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company
