2 19.13. Version and Platform Compatibility #
4 19.13.1. Previous PostgreSQL Versions
5 19.13.2. Platform and Client Compatibility
7 19.13.1. Previous PostgreSQL Versions #
9 array_nulls (boolean) #
10 This controls whether the array input parser recognizes unquoted
11 NULL as specifying a null array element. By default, this is on,
12 allowing array values containing null values to be entered.
13 However, PostgreSQL versions before 8.2 did not support null
14 values in arrays, and therefore would treat NULL as specifying a
15 normal array element with the string value “NULL”. For backward
16 compatibility with applications that require the old behavior,
17 this variable can be turned off.
19 Note that it is possible to create array values containing null
20 values even when this variable is off.
22 backslash_quote (enum) #
23 This controls whether a quote mark can be represented by \' in a
24 string literal. The preferred, SQL-standard way to represent a
25 quote mark is by doubling it ('') but PostgreSQL has
26 historically also accepted \'. However, use of \' creates
27 security risks because in some client character set encodings,
28 there are multibyte characters in which the last byte is
29 numerically equivalent to ASCII \. If client-side code does
30 escaping incorrectly then an SQL-injection attack is possible.
31 This risk can be prevented by making the server reject queries
32 in which a quote mark appears to be escaped by a backslash. The
33 allowed values of backslash_quote are on (allow \' always), off
34 (reject always), and safe_encoding (allow only if client
35 encoding does not allow ASCII \ within a multibyte character).
36 safe_encoding is the default setting.
38 Note that in a standard-conforming string literal, \ just means
39 \ anyway. This parameter only affects the handling of
40 non-standard-conforming literals, including escape string syntax
43 escape_string_warning (boolean) #
44 When on, a warning is issued if a backslash (\) appears in an
45 ordinary string literal ('...' syntax) and
46 standard_conforming_strings is off. The default is on.
48 Applications that wish to use backslash as escape should be
49 modified to use escape string syntax (E'...'), because the
50 default behavior of ordinary strings is now to treat backslash
51 as an ordinary character, per SQL standard. This variable can be
52 enabled to help locate code that needs to be changed.
54 lo_compat_privileges (boolean) #
55 In PostgreSQL releases prior to 9.0, large objects did not have
56 access privileges and were, therefore, always readable and
57 writable by all users. Setting this variable to on disables the
58 new privilege checks, for compatibility with prior releases. The
59 default is off. Only superusers and users with the appropriate
60 SET privilege can change this setting.
62 Setting this variable does not disable all security checks
63 related to large objects — only those for which the default
64 behavior has changed in PostgreSQL 9.0.
66 quote_all_identifiers (boolean) #
67 When the database generates SQL, force all identifiers to be
68 quoted, even if they are not (currently) keywords. This will
69 affect the output of EXPLAIN as well as the results of functions
70 like pg_get_viewdef. See also the --quote-all-identifiers option
71 of pg_dump and pg_dumpall.
73 standard_conforming_strings (boolean) #
74 This controls whether ordinary string literals ('...') treat
75 backslashes literally, as specified in the SQL standard.
76 Beginning in PostgreSQL 9.1, the default is on (prior releases
77 defaulted to off). Applications can check this parameter to
78 determine how string literals will be processed. The presence of
79 this parameter can also be taken as an indication that the
80 escape string syntax (E'...') is supported. Escape string syntax
81 (Section 4.1.2.2) should be used if an application desires
82 backslashes to be treated as escape characters.
84 synchronize_seqscans (boolean) #
85 This allows sequential scans of large tables to synchronize with
86 each other, so that concurrent scans read the same block at
87 about the same time and hence share the I/O workload. When this
88 is enabled, a scan might start in the middle of the table and
89 then “wrap around” the end to cover all rows, so as to
90 synchronize with the activity of scans already in progress. This
91 can result in unpredictable changes in the row ordering returned
92 by queries that have no ORDER BY clause. Setting this parameter
93 to off ensures the pre-8.3 behavior in which a sequential scan
94 always starts from the beginning of the table. The default is
97 19.13.2. Platform and Client Compatibility #
99 transform_null_equals (boolean) #
100 When on, expressions of the form expr = NULL (or NULL = expr)
101 are treated as expr IS NULL, that is, they return true if expr
102 evaluates to the null value, and false otherwise. The correct
103 SQL-spec-compliant behavior of expr = NULL is to always return
104 null (unknown). Therefore this parameter defaults to off.
106 However, filtered forms in Microsoft Access generate queries
107 that appear to use expr = NULL to test for null values, so if
108 you use that interface to access the database you might want to
109 turn this option on. Since expressions of the form expr = NULL
110 always return the null value (using the SQL standard
111 interpretation), they are not very useful and do not appear
112 often in normal applications so this option does little harm in
113 practice. But new users are frequently confused about the
114 semantics of expressions involving null values, so this option
117 Note that this option only affects the exact form = NULL, not
118 other comparison operators or other expressions that are
119 computationally equivalent to some expression involving the
120 equals operator (such as IN). Thus, this option is not a general
121 fix for bad programming.
123 Refer to Section 9.2 for related information.
125 allow_alter_system (boolean) #
126 When allow_alter_system is set to off, an error is returned if
127 the ALTER SYSTEM command is executed. This parameter can only be
128 set in the postgresql.conf file or on the server command line.
129 The default value is on.
131 Note that this setting must not be regarded as a security
132 feature. It only disables the ALTER SYSTEM command. It does not
133 prevent a superuser from changing the configuration using other
134 SQL commands. A superuser has many ways of executing shell
135 commands at the operating system level, and can therefore modify
136 postgresql.auto.conf regardless of the value of this setting.
138 Turning this setting off is intended for environments where the
139 configuration of PostgreSQL is managed by some external tool. In
140 such environments, a well-intentioned superuser might mistakenly
141 use ALTER SYSTEM to change the configuration instead of using
142 the external tool. This might result in unintended behavior,
143 such as the external tool overwriting the change at some later
144 point in time when it updates the configuration. Setting this
145 parameter to off can help avoid such mistakes.
147 This parameter only controls the use of ALTER SYSTEM. The
148 settings stored in postgresql.auto.conf take effect even if
149 allow_alter_system is set to off.