Re: Making pg_config and pg_controldata output available via SQL

Joshua Tolley <eggyknap@gmail.com> writes:
> I'd really like to see the data from pg_config and pg_controldata available
> through SQL, such as by adding output to pg_show_all_settings(), or adding new
> SRFs named something like pg_config() and pg_controldata(). Does this make as
> much sense to the rest of the world as it does to me? In particular it's
> useful to be able to find $libdir without requiring pg_config, as some
> packagers tend not to include it in anything put the -dev packages, but all
> those settings seem useful to have on hand, and in at least most cases
> shouldn't be tough to expose via SQL. Comments?

I wonder whether there's a security issue there.  Telling an attacker
whether you've been built with feature X seems like possibly useful
info that he couldn't otherwise get without local machine access.
In particular, we already try to avoid exposing server filesystem
path information.
        regards, tom lane