Stephen Frost <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> I've been thinking about the performance issues some and have to admit
> that I havn't really come to much of a solution.  It seems to me that
> there's two ways to come at the issue:

> a) start from the user:
>    ...
> b) start from the ACL list:
>    ...

The current ACL-checking code does (b), relying on a function in_group()
that tests whether the target userid is a member of a given group.
I would suggest preserving this basic structure if only to avoid breaking
things unintentionally.  However, you could think about caching the set
of groups that a user belongs to, thus combining the best features of
both (a) and (b).  It's always bothered me that in_group() seemed like a
fairly expensive operation.

>    [Note: This could possibly be done and stored per-user on connection,
>    but it would mean we'd have to have a mechanism to update it when
>    necessary, possibly instigated by the user, or just force them to
>    reconnect ala unix group membership]

No, we'd drive it off syscache invalidation.  Any change in pg_auth_members
would cause us to just discard the whole membership cache.  This sort of
mechanism is already in use in a couple places (schema search list
maintenance is one example IIRC --- look at namespace.c).

                        regards, tom lane

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