# Refs
- refs https://github.com/neondatabase/neon/issues/8915
- discussion thread:
https://neondb.slack.com/archives/C033RQ5SPDH/p1742406381132599
- stacked atop https://github.com/neondatabase/neon/pull/11298
- corresponding internal docs update that illustrates how this PR
removes friction: https://github.com/neondatabase/docs/pull/404
# Problem
Rejecting `pageserver.toml`s with unknown fields adds friction,
especially when using `pageserver.toml` fields as feature flags that
need to be decommissioned.
See the added paragraphs on `pageserver_api::models::ConfigToml` for
details on what kind of friction it causes.
Also read the corresponding internal docs update linked above to see a
more imperative guide for using `pageserver.toml` flags as feature
flags.
# Solution
## Ignoring unknown fields
Ignoring is the serde default behavior.
So, just remove `serde(deny_unknown_fields)` from all structs in
`pageserver_api::config::ConfigToml`
`pageserver_api::config::TenantConfigToml`.
I went through all the child fields and verified they don't use
`deny_unknown_fields` either, including those shared with
`pageserver_api::models`.
## Warning about unknown fields
We still want to warn about unknown fields to
- be informed about typos in the config template
- be reminded about feature-flag style configs that have been cleaned up
in code but not yet in config templates
We tried `serde_ignore` (cf draft #11319) but it doesn't work with
`serde(flatten)`.
The solution we arrived at is to compare the on-disk TOML with the TOML
that we produce if we serialize the `ConfigToml` again.
Any key specified in the on-disk TOML but not present in the serialized
TOML is flagged as an ignored key.
The mechanism to do it is a tiny recursive decent visitor on the
`toml_edit::DocumentMut`.
# Future Work
Invalid config _values_ in known fields will continue to fail pageserver
startup.
See
- https://github.com/neondatabase/cloud/issues/24349
for current worst case impact to deployments & ideas to improve.
