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4.12.1 Previous PostgreSQL Versions

array_nulls (boolean)

This controls whether the array input parser recognizes unquoted NULL as specifying a null array element. By default, this is on, allowing array values containing null values to be entered. However, PostgreSQL versions before 8.2 did not support null values in arrays, and therefore would treat NULL as specifying a normal array element with the string value “NULL”. For backwards compatibility with applications that require the old behavior, this variable can be turned off. Note that it is possible to create array values containing null values even when this variable is off.

backslash_quote (enum)

This controls whether a quote mark can be represented by \' in a string literal. The preferred, SQL-standard way to represent a quote mark is by doubling it ('') but PostgreSQL has historically also accepted \'. However, use of \' creates security risks because in some client character set encodings, there are multibyte characters in which the last byte is numerically equivalent to ASCII \. If client-side code does escaping incorrectly then a SQL-injection attack is possible. This risk can be prevented by making the server reject queries in which a quote mark appears to be escaped by a backslash. The allowed values of backslash_quote are on (allow \' always), off (reject always), and safe_encoding (allow only if client encoding does not allow ASCII \ within a multibyte character). safe_encoding is the default setting. Note that in a standard-conforming string literal, \ just means \ anyway. This parameter only affects the handling of non-standard-conforming literals, including escape string syntax (E'...').

default_with_oids (boolean)

This controls whether CREATE TABLE and CREATE TABLE AS include an OID column in newly-created tables, if neither WITH OIDS nor WITHOUT OIDS is specified. It also determines whether OIDs will be included in tables created by SELECT INTO. The parameter is off by default; in PostgreSQL 8.0 and earlier, it was on by default. The use of OIDs in user tables is considered deprecated, so most installations should leave this variable disabled. Applications that require OIDs for a particular table should specify WITH OIDS when creating the table. This variable can be enabled for compatibility with old applications that do not follow this behavior.

escape_string_warning (boolean)

When on, a warning is issued if a backslash (\) appears in an ordinary string literal ('...' syntax) and standard_conforming_strings is off. The default is on. Applications that wish to use backslash as escape should be modified to use escape string syntax (E'...'), because the default behavior of ordinary strings will change in a future release for SQL compatibility. This variable can be enabled to help detect applications that will break.

lo_compat_privileges (boolean)

In PostgreSQL releases prior to 9.0, large objects did not have access privileges and were, in effect, readable and writable by all users. Setting this variable to on disables the new privilege checks, for compatibility with prior releases. The default is off. Setting this variable does not disable all security checks related to large objects--only those for which the default behavior has changed in PostgreSQL 9.0. For example, lo_import() and lo_export() need superuser privileges independent of this setting.

sql_inheritance (boolean)

This controls the inheritance semantics. If turned off, subtables are not accessed by various commands by default; basically an implied ONLY key word. This was added for compatibility with releases prior to 7.1. See Volume 1A: 3.8 Inheritance for more information.

standard_conforming_strings (boolean)

This controls whether ordinary string literals ('...') treat backslashes literally, as specified in the SQL standard. The default is currently off, causing PostgreSQL to have its historical behavior of treating backslashes as escape characters. The default will change to on in a future release to improve compatibility with the SQL standard. Applications can check this parameter to determine how string literals will be processed. The presence of this parameter can also be taken as an indication that the escape string syntax (E'...') is supported. Escape string syntax ( Volume 1A: 2.1.2.2 String Constants with C-Style Escapes) should be used if an application desires backslashes to be treated as escape characters.

synchronize_seqscans (boolean)

This allows sequential scans of large tables to synchronize with each other, so that concurrent scans read the same block at about the same time and hence share the I/O workload. When this is enabled, a scan might start in the middle of the table and then “wrap around” the end to cover all rows, so as to synchronize with the activity of scans already in progress. This can result in unpredictable changes in the row ordering returned by queries that have no ORDER BY clause. Setting this parameter to off ensures the pre-8.3 behavior in which a sequential scan always starts from the beginning of the table. The default is on.