feat: respect AutoSave flag for grouping policy operations

[thoraj]

Summary

Based on the documentation for EnableAutoSave(), which states it "controls whether to save a policy rule automatically to the adapter when it is added or removed," we believe AutoSave should apply uniformly to all policy operations, including both regular policies and grouping policies.

However, we discovered that grouping policy operations were not respecting the AutoSave flag. This PR addresses that inconsistency.

Note: This issue was discovered while working on adding support for multiple CasbinDbContext instances in the EFCore adapter (see casbin-net/EFCore-Adapter#125), where proper AutoSave behavior is essential for correct adapter operation.

Problem

The EnableAutoSave(false) setting was not being respected for RBAC/grouping policy operations:

• ✅ Regular policy operations worked correctly: AddPolicy(), RemovePolicy(), UpdatePolicy() did not save to adapter when AutoSave was disabled
• ❌ Grouping policy operations did not respect the flag: AddGroupingPolicy(), RemoveGroupingPolicy(), UpdateGroupingPolicy() still saved to adapter even when AutoSave was disabled

Root Cause

The SetAutoSave() method in Casbin/Extensions/Model/ModelExtension.cs only iterated through policy assertions (section "p") to set the AutoSave flag. It never set the flag for role assertions (section "g"), even though RoleAssertion has its own PolicyManager with an AutoSave property.

Solution

Modified SetAutoSave() to configure the AutoSave flag for both policy and role/grouping assertions:

public static void SetAutoSave(this IModel model, bool autoSave)
{
    // Set AutoSave for policy assertions (section "p")
    foreach (KeyValuePair<string, PolicyAssertion> pair in model.Sections.GetPolicyAssertions())
    {
        pair.Value.PolicyManager.AutoSave = autoSave;
    }

    // Set AutoSave for role/grouping assertions (section "g") if they exist
    if (model.Sections.ContainsSection(PermConstants.Section.RoleSection))
    {
        foreach (KeyValuePair<string, RoleAssertion> pair in model.Sections.GetRoleAssertions())
        {
            pair.Value.PolicyManager.AutoSave = autoSave;
        }
    }
}

The fix includes a safety check (ContainsSection) to handle models without role definitions.

Changes

Modified Files

1. Casbin/Extensions/Model/ModelExtension.cs

   • Updated SetAutoSave() method to configure AutoSave for both policy and role assertions
   • Added safety check for models without role definitions

2. Casbin.UnitTests/ModelTests/EnforcerTest.cs

   • Added TestAutoSaveGroupingPolicy() - Verifies synchronous grouping policy operations respect AutoSave
   • Added TestAutoSaveGroupingPolicyAsync() - Verifies asynchronous grouping policy operations respect AutoSave

3. Casbin.UnitTests/Mock/MockSingleAdapter.cs (new file)

   • Created test helper that implements ISingleAdapter
   • Tracks save operations to verify AutoSave behavior
   • Compatible with .NET 4.5.2 through .NET 9.0

Testing

• ✅ New tests fail before the fix (confirming the issue existed)
• ✅ New tests pass after the fix (confirming the fix works)
• ✅ All 363 existing unit tests pass with no regressions
• ✅ Full solution builds cleanly across all target frameworks

Impact

Affected Methods (Now Fixed)

All grouping policy methods now properly respect the AutoSave flag:

• AddGroupingPolicy() / AddGroupingPolicyAsync()
• AddGroupingPolicies() / AddGroupingPoliciesAsync()
• RemoveGroupingPolicy() / RemoveGroupingPolicyAsync()
• RemoveGroupingPolicies() / RemoveGroupingPoliciesAsync()
• UpdateGroupingPolicy() / UpdateGroupingPolicyAsync()
• UpdateGroupingPolicies() / UpdateGroupingPoliciesAsync()
• RemoveFilteredGroupingPolicy() / RemoveFilteredGroupingPolicyAsync()

Backward Compatibility

• Fully backward compatible
• Models without role definitions continue to work correctly (safety check added)
• No API changes
• No behavioral changes for code that already worked correctly

---

We believe this fix aligns with the documented behavior and design intent of the AutoSave feature. However, if there was an intentional reason for the previous behavior, we're happy to discuss alternative approaches.

[CLAassistant]

All committers have signed the CLA.

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR fixes a bug where the EnableAutoSave() method was not applying the AutoSave setting to role/grouping policy assertions (section "g"), causing grouping policy changes to still trigger adapter saves even when AutoSave was disabled.

• Extended SetAutoSave() to include role/grouping assertions in addition to policy assertions
• Added two new tests to verify AutoSave behavior for grouping policies (sync and async)
• Created MockSingleAdapter to facilitate testing of AutoSave behavior

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

File	Description
Casbin/Extensions/Model/ModelExtension.cs	Added logic to set AutoSave on role assertion PolicyManagers when role section exists
Casbin.UnitTests/ModelTests/EnforcerTest.cs	Added tests TestAutoSaveGroupingPolicy() and TestAutoSaveGroupingPolicyAsync() to verify the fix
Casbin.UnitTests/Mock/MockSingleAdapter.cs	New mock adapter that tracks individual policy operations to test AutoSave behavior

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🎉 This PR is included in version 2.19.1 🎉

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