Configuration Reference

ProvSQL is controlled by four GUC (Grand Unified Configuration) variables, all settable per session with SET or permanently in postgresql.conf or with ALTER DATABASE / ALTER ROLE.

provsql.active (default: on)

Master switch. When off, ProvSQL drops all provenance annotations silently, as if the extension were not loaded. Useful to temporarily disable provenance tracking without unloading the extension.

provsql.where_provenance (default: off)

Enable where-provenance tracking (see where-provenance). Adds project and eq gates to record the source cell of each output value. Disabled by default due to overhead.

provsql.update_provenance (default: off)

Enable provenance tracking for INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements (see data-modification). Requires PostgreSQL ≥ 14.

provsql.verbose_level (default: 0)

Controls the verbosity of ProvSQL diagnostic messages. 0 is silent. The meaningful thresholds are:

• ≥ 20 – print the rewritten SQL query before and after provenance rewriting (requires PostgreSQL ≥ 15); print the Tseytin circuit and compiled d-DNNF filenames during knowledge compilation; report which d-DNNF method was chosen (direct interpretation, tree decomposition, or external compilation) and its gate count; keep all intermediate temporary files (Tseytin, d-DNNF, DOT) instead of deleting them.
• ≥ 40 – also print the time spent by the planner on rewriting.
• ≥ 50 – also print the full internal parse-tree representation of the query before and after rewriting.

All four variables have user-level scope: any user can change them for their own session without superuser privileges.