On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 3:11 AM, Robert Young <yay...@gmail.com> wrote: > I am just wondering, why "localhost" entry in /etc/hosts is editable > and why 127.0.0.1 not fixed with loopback interface? > should you agree with that we should submit a patch to kernel to > resolve "localhost" to 127.0.0.1 statically need no entry in > /etc/hosts and loopback interface bind to 127.0.0.1 not changeable?
You're attacking a straw man. Removing /etc/hosts altogether is also not recommended; maybe you should submit a kernel patch to make it impossible to unlink it. You probably shouldn't remove /bin/ls either, so better include that in the patch, too. And on and on. It isn't possible for PostgreSQL or any other tool to protect itself against every stupid configuration someone might create, and we shouldn't try. root can bypass all permissions checks; that means root can do really, incredibly dumb things. In the PostgreSQL world, the database superuser can do similarly dumb things, like "DELETE FROM pg_proc". The question here is not whether it should be impossible to edit /etc/hosts; it's whether it's ever a good idea to set up the configuration you're describing. If there is a legitimate use-case for that configuration, then we ought to support it, ideally without adding a new GUC but perhaps doing so if there is no reasonable alternative. But if the configuration that you're proposing is something that no one should ever do in the first place, then it makes no sense for us to spend time worrying about how to make it work. Tom is arguing that it falls into the latter category. I am not sure that he's right, but if you want to argue for this patch, you're argument shouldn't be that more configuration knobs are better (which most PostgreSQL project members, inculding me, do not believe, because it means more code to maintain and frequently confuses users to no benefit) but rather that this particular configuration option is needed to support some sensible use case that can't be supported any other way. -- Robert Haas EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company -- Sent via pgsql-bugs mailing list (pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-bugs
