> Can you *do* the row-level permission? I don't think there's any consensus on a design.
Getting consensus on a design seems to actually be one of the harder aspects of PostgreSQL development. The pattern seems to be: 1. Someone submits a patch. By definition, the patch embodies some particular design. 2. One or more members of core express concerns about the design embodied in the patch. 3. If the concerns are fairly specific and not mutually contradictory, the submitter revises the patch accordingly and it gets committed (hopefully without having to discard too much of their previous work). 4. If the concerns are fairly vague and open-ended, or if they contract each other, the patch hovers in limbo for eternity. I'm not sure what the solution to this problem is. The fact that a member of core does not like a particular design for feature X does not oblige that person to produce a better one, but it's pretty tough to proceed without it. In the case of SE-PostgreSQL, two members of core expressed concerns: - Peter Eisentraut expressed concern about implementing row-level security via SE-PostgreSQL without first implementing some sort of SQL-based row-level security. KaiGai expressed willingness to implement that, but we still don't have a design, so I assume KaiGai is going to implement... something... and hope that it turns out to be acceptable. - Tom Lane expressed concerns about covert channels to which KaiGai responded, AIUI, that the patch was pretty useful even without addressing that issue, but if Tom isn't willing to see the patch committed otherwise, then KaiGai has to decide between giving up and attempting to implement some form of polyinstantiation - which will not be easy, and which is far from guaranteed to be accepted if he does develop it. In both cases, the lack of a clear roadmap means that a dedicated developer is potentially putting in a lot of time and effort developing what may end up being a complete dead-end. ...Robert -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers