Re: pg_cancel_backend by non-superuser - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

On 12/11/2011 05:29 PM, Torello Querci wrote:
> I will try to adjust the patch and submit for the next Commit Fest if
> this is ok for you.
>    

I don't think we'll need this, it will take a bit to explain why though.

First, thanks for returning this topic to discussion and keeping up with 
all the controversy around it.  You said back in February this was your 
first post here, and I doubt you expected that 10 months later this 
would still be active and argued over.  The fact that you're still here 
and everyone knows your name now is itself an accomplishment, many 
people just give up on their submission ideas under far less negative 
feedback.

I just took a long look at all three of the submissions in this area 
we've gotten.  The central idea that made yours different was making the 
database owner the person allowed to cancel things.  That hadn't been 
suggested as a cancellation requisite before that I know of, and this 
code may wander in that direction one day.  It's just a bit too much to 
accept right now.  You seem to need that specific feature for your 
environment.  If that's the case, you might want to develop something 
that works that way, but handles the concerns raised here.  The fact 
that it's not acceptable for a database owner to cancel a superuser 
query is the biggest objection, there were some others too.  Ultimately 
it may take a reworking of database permissions to really make this 
acceptable, which is a larger job than I think you were trying to get 
involved with.

Unfortunately, when I look at the new spec we have now, I don't see 
anything from what you did that we can re-use.  It's too specific to the 
owner-oriented idea.  The two other patches that have been submitted 
both are closer to what we've decided we want now.  What I'm going to do 
here is mark your submission "returned with feedback".

Rather than wait for something new from you, I'm going to review and 
rework the other two submissions.  That I can start on right now.  It's 
taken so long to reach this point that I don't want to wait much longer 
for another submission here, certainly not until over a month from now 
when the next CF starts.  We need to get the arguments around a new 
version started earlier than that.  Thanks for offering to work on this 
more, and I hope there's been something about this long wandering 
discussion that's been helpful to you.  As I said, you did at least make 
a good first impression, and that is worth something when it comes to 
this group.

-- 
Greg Smith   2ndQuadrant US    greg@2ndQuadrant.com   Baltimore, MD
PostgreSQL Training, Services, and 24x7 Support  www.2ndQuadrant.us