Thread: Remove add_missing_from_clause?

Hello,

Following Tom's lead... should we also remove this? We have had it for a
couple of releases, and really all we are doing is protecting the use of
bad queries.

Can we remove it?

Joshua D. Drake

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"Joshua D. Drake" <jd@commandprompt.com> writes:
> Following Tom's lead... should we also remove this? We have had it for a
> couple of releases, and really all we are doing is protecting the use of
> bad queries.

No, AFAICT it's still in active use --- you need not look back far in
the mailing lists to find questions answered by "see add_missing_from".
I haven't seen a question about sql_inheritance in a long while.

            regards, tom lane

Tom Lane wrote:
> "Joshua D. Drake" <jd@commandprompt.com> writes:
>> Following Tom's lead... should we also remove this? We have had it for a
>> couple of releases, and really all we are doing is protecting the use of
>> bad queries.
>
> No, AFAICT it's still in active use --- you need not look back far in
> the mailing lists to find questions answered by "see add_missing_from".
> I haven't seen a question about sql_inheritance in a long while.

Oh, I know it is still in use, that is my complaint :). Perhaps stating
that this will be the last release of the feature?

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake


>
>             regards, tom lane
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 2: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster
>


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"Joshua D. Drake" <jd@commandprompt.com> writes:
> Tom Lane wrote:
>> No, AFAICT it's still in active use --- you need not look back far in
>> the mailing lists to find questions answered by "see add_missing_from".

> Oh, I know it is still in use, that is my complaint :). Perhaps stating
> that this will be the last release of the feature?

Stating it doesn't make it so ;-)

I actually don't see a big problem with add_missing_from.  It's not a
security hole because (a) it doesn't affect properly written queries and
(b) the worst you can do to an improperly written query is make it fail
in an obvious way.  So I'm willing to leave it around for legacy apps
for a good while; certainly as long as we left sql_inheritance in there,
which will have been 6+ years if it goes away in 8.3.  The clock on
add_missing_from can only be said to have started running when we made
it false by default, which was 8.1 --- so it's got about five years left...

Also, I see in the 8.1 release notes

     It may be necessary to set add_missing_from to true in order to
     load an existing dump file, if the dump contains any views or rules
     created using the implicit-FROM syntax. This should be a one-time
     annoyance, because PostgreSQL 8.1 will convert such views and rules
     to standard explicit-FROM syntax. Subsequent dumps will therefore
     not have the problem.

If we remove add_missing_from then some people will be unable to migrate
forward from pre-8.1 releases because their views won't load.  Seeing
that you have elsewhere been arguing for the wisdom of skipping
releases, I can hardly think that you'd be in favor of that.

            regards, tom lane

>
>> Oh, I know it is still in use, that is my complaint :). Perhaps stating
>> that this will be the last release of the feature?
>
> Stating it doesn't make it so ;-)

O.k. that is certainly true :)


> If we remove add_missing_from then some people will be unable to migrate
> forward from pre-8.1 releases because their views won't load.  Seeing
> that you have elsewhere been arguing for the wisdom of skipping
> releases, I can hardly think that you'd be in favor of that.

Oh, sure, throw that at me ;). I concede the point.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake

>
>             regards, tom lane
>


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