Re: [PoC] Federated Authn/z with OAUTHBEARER

On Tue, Apr 15, 2025 at 8:32 AM Peter Eisentraut <peter@eisentraut.org> wrote:
> On 10.04.25 01:08, Jacob Champion wrote:
> > Christoph noted that this was also confusing from the packaging side,
> > earlier, and Daniel proposed -Doauth-client/--with-oauth-client as the
> > feature switch name instead. Any objections? Unfortunately it would
> > mean a buildfarm email is in order, so we should get it locked in.
>
> We had that discussion early in the development, and I still think it's
> not the right choice.

I strongly agree. I think it will not be long before somebody
implements a second feature depending on libcurl, and there's no
precedent for the idea that we allow those features to be enabled and
disabled individually. If that turns out to be something that is
wanted, then since this will be a separate library, a packager can
choose not to ship it, or to put it in a separate package, if they
wish. If there's REALLY a lot of demand for a separate enable/disable
switch for this feature then we can consider making this an exception
to what we do for all other dependent libraries, but I bet there won't
be. I can imagine someone not wanting libcurl on their system on the
theory that it would potentially open up the ability to download data
from arbitrary URLs which might be considered bad from a security
posture -- but I don't really see why someone would be particularly
upset about one particular way in which libcurl might be used.

I also don't mind being wrong, of course. But I think it's better to
bet on making this like other things and then change strategy if that
doesn't work out, rather than starting out by making this different
from other things.

--
Robert Haas
EDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com