Clarify documentation of RESET ROLE

jconway · jconway · commit 53f5c2df0536 · 2021-04-02T13:48:48.000-04:00
Command-line options, or previous "ALTER (ROLE|DATABASE) ... SET ROLE ..." commands, can change the value of the default role for a session. In the presence of one of these, RESET ROLE will change the current user identifier to the default role rather than the session user identifier. Fix the documentation to reflect this reality. Backpatch to all supported versions. Author: Nathan Bossart Reviewed-By: Laurenz Albe, David G. Johnston, Joe Conway Reported by: Nathan Bossart Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/flat/925134DB-8212-4F60-8AB1-B1231D750CB4%40amazon.com Backpatch-through: 9.6
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/ref/set_role.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/ref/set_role.sgml
@@ -53,9 +53,16 @@ RESET ROLE
   </para>
 
   <para>
-   The <literal>NONE</literal> and <literal>RESET</literal> forms reset the current
-   user identifier to be the current session user identifier.
-   These forms can be executed by any user.
+   <literal>SET ROLE NONE</literal> sets the current user identifier to the
+   current session user identifier, as returned by
+   <function>session_user</function>.  <literal>RESET ROLE</literal> sets the
+   current user identifier to the connection-time setting specified by the
+   <link linkend="libpq-connect-options">command-line options</link>,
+   <link linkend="sql-alterrole"><command>ALTER ROLE</command></link>, or
+   <link linkend="sql-alterdatabase"><command>ALTER DATABASE</command></link>,
+   if any such settings exist.  Otherwise, <literal>RESET ROLE</literal> sets
+   the current user identifier to the current session user identifier.  These
+   forms can be executed by any user.
   </para>
  </refsect1>
 
