Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2020 15:46:14 -0400
From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
To: John Naylor <john.naylor@enterprisedb.com>
Cc: pgsql-hackers <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: cutting down the TODO list thread
Message-ID: <20201027194614.GR4951@momjian.us>
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On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 03:24:35PM -0400, John Naylor wrote:
> As I mentioned in [1], I've volunteered to clear out the TODO list of items
> that appear to be too difficult, controversial, or otherwise not worth doing to
> warrant being listed there. I'll be working a few sections at a time, and every
> so often I'll have a list of proposed items for removal. If I don't hear
> objections, I'll remove the items after a few days while going through the next
> set.
> 
> Where there's an email thread, I've skimmed a few messages to get a sense of
> the community's thoughts on it. Where easily determined, I've taken age into
> account, insofar as something from 2017 is going to get much more benefit of
> doubt than something from 2008. I've added after each item a phrase that sums
> up the reason I believe it doesn't belong anymore. Feedback welcome, of course,
> although I suspect there won't be much.

Thanks for working on this.  It certainly needs new eyes (not mine).  ;-)

I am fine reomving all the items below.  I am kind of disappointed we
have these _stuck_ items, but I don't see a clear way forward, so let's
just remove them and see what requests we get for them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

> **Administration
> 
> - Have custom variables be transaction-safe
>   Old and found to be difficult after attempting
> 
> - Allow custom variables to appear in pg_settings()
>   Old and controversial
> 
> - Implement the SQL-standard mechanism whereby REVOKE ROLE revokes only the
> privilege granted by the invoking role, and not those granted by other roles
>   Old and difficult
> 
> - Prevent query cancel packets from being replayed by an attacker, especially
> when using SSL
>   Old and difficult
> 
> *Configuration files
> 
> - Consider normalizing fractions in postgresql.conf, perhaps using '%'
>   At the time (2007), some gucs used an actual percentage.
> 
> - Add external tool to auto-tune some postgresql.conf parameters
>   There are already out-of-core tools that try to do this.
> 
> - Create utility to compute accurate random_page_cost value
>   Seems outdated: In the current age of SSDs and cloud environments, it's often
> just set to 1.1, and there hasn't been a demand to be more accurate than that.
> 
> - Allow synchronous_standby_names to be disabled after communication failure
> with all synchronous standby servers exceeds some timeout
>   Controversial
> 
> - Adjust rounding behavior for numeric GUC values
>   Controversial
> 
> *Tablespaces
> 
> - Allow WAL replay of CREATE TABLESPACE to work when the directory structure on
> the recovery computer is different from the original
>   Thread quote: "part of the difficult, perhaps-not-worth doing impossible
> problems"
> 
> - Allow per-tablespace quotas
>   This seems to point to the larger problem space of disk space monitoring, and
> should probably be phrased thusly, and is a much bigger project or set of
> projects.
> 
> - Allow tablespaces on RAM-based partitions for temporary objects
>   In the thread, what's desired is the ability to have some amount of
> durability on a RAM-disk without WAL logging.
> 
> - Close race in DROP TABLESPACE on Windows
>   This refers to buildfarm failures from 2014.
> 
> *Statistics Collector
> 
> - Track number of WAL files ready to be archived in pg_stat_archiver
>   Thread quote: "pg_stat_archiver already has a column for last_archived_wal
> and last_failed_wal, so you can already work out how many files there must be
> between then and now"
> 
> *Point-In-Time Recovery
> 
> - Allow archive_mode to be changed without server restart
>   Controversial and old
> 
> *Standby server mode
> 
> - Allow pg_xlogfile_name() to be used in recovery mode
>   Controversial and old
> 
> - Change walsender so that it applies per-role settings
>   Old and possibly obsolete

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        https://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             https://enterprisedb.com

  The usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness, Bruce Lee