I'd be less unhappy with this patch if the variable were not marked GUC_REPORT. That is what gives it nontrivial cost: it's adding a couple dozen bytes to every connection startup exchange, for data that's 100% redundant with data already being transmitted.
The arguments that were made in favor of this patch cited its possible use in SQL scripts, but there is no need for the variable to be marked GUC_REPORT for that usage. regards, tom lane ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: don't forget to increase your free space map settings