Allow postgres_fdw to ship extension funcs/operators for remote execution.

The user can whitelist specified extension(s) in the foreign server's
options, whereupon we will treat immutable functions and operators of those
extensions as candidates to be sent for remote execution.

Whitelisting an extension in this way basically promises that the extension
exists on the remote server and behaves compatibly with the local instance.
We have no way to prove that formally, so we have to rely on the user to
get it right.  But this seems like something that people can usually get
right in practice.

We might in future allow functions and operators to be whitelisted
individually, but extension granularity is a very convenient special case,
so it got done first.

The patch as-committed lacks any regression tests, which is unfortunate,
but introducing dependencies on other extensions for testing purposes
would break "make installcheck" scenarios, which is worse.  I have some
ideas about klugy ways around that, but it seems like material for a
separate patch.  For the moment, leave the problem open.

Paul Ramsey, hacked up a bit more by me

1 files changed, 44 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/postgres-fdw.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/postgres-fdw.sgml
index 7c922821e98..5a829d537a6 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/postgres-fdw.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/postgres-fdw.sgml
@@ -265,6 +265,46 @@
   </sect3>
 
   <sect3>
+   <title>Remote Execution Options</title>
+
+   <para>
+    By default, only <literal>WHERE</> clauses using built-in operators and
+    functions will be considered for execution on the remote server.  Clauses
+    involving non-built-in functions are checked locally after rows are
+    fetched.  If such functions are available on the remote server and can be
+    relied on to produce the same results as they do locally, performance can
+    be improved by sending such <literal>WHERE</> clauses for remote
+    execution.  This behavior can be controlled using the following option:
+   </para>
+
+   <variablelist>
+
+    <varlistentry>
+     <term><literal>extensions</literal></term>
+     <listitem>
+      <para>
+       This option is a comma-separated list of names
+       of <productname>PostgreSQL</> extensions that are installed, in
+       compatible versions, on both the local and remote servers.  Functions
+       and operators that are immutable and belong to a listed extension will
+       be considered shippable to the remote server.
+       This option can only be specified for foreign servers, not per-table.
+      </para>
+     </listitem>
+    </varlistentry>
+
+   </variablelist>
+
+   <para>
+    When using the <literal>extensions</literal> option, <emphasis>it is the
+    user's responsibility</> that the listed extensions exist and behave
+    identically on both the local and remote servers.  Otherwise, remote
+    queries may fail or behave unexpectedly.
+   </para>
+
+  </sect3>
+
+  <sect3>
    <title>Updatability Options</title>
 
    <para>
@@ -427,8 +467,10 @@
    execution, and by not retrieving table columns that are not needed for
    the current query.  To reduce the risk of misexecution of queries,
    <literal>WHERE</> clauses are not sent to the remote server unless they use
-   only built-in data types, operators, and functions.  Operators and
-   functions in the clauses must be <literal>IMMUTABLE</> as well.
+   only data types, operators, and functions that are built-in or belong to an
+   extension that's listed in the foreign server's <literal>extensions</>
+   option.  Operators and functions in such clauses must
+   be <literal>IMMUTABLE</> as well.
   </para>
 
   <para>