Re: Possibility to disable `ALTER SYSTEM`

> On 19 Mar 2024, at 15:51, Tom Lane  wrote:
> 
> Heikki Linnakangas  writes:
>> Perhaps we could make that even better with a GUC though. I propose a 
>> GUC called 'configuration_managed_externally = true / false". If you set 
>> it to true, we prevent ALTER SYSTEM and make the error message more 
>> definitive:
> 
>> postgres=# ALTER SYSTEM SET wal_level TO minimal;
>> ERROR:  configuration is managed externally
> 
>> As a bonus, if that GUC is set, we could even check at server startup 
>> that all the configuration files are not writable by the postgres user, 
>> and print a warning or refuse to start up if they are.
> 
> I like this idea.  The "bonus" is not optional though, because
> setting the files' ownership/permissions is the only way to be
> sure that the prohibition is even a little bit bulletproof.

Agreed, assuming we can solve the below..

> One small issue: how do we make that work on Windows?  Have recent
> versions grown anything that looks like real file permissions?

--
Daniel Gustafsson