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
Bruce Momjian
Tom Lane