Re: postgresql.conf and postgres options

I think all valid options should appear in the options file. Right now,
only a few are in there, I think.

> I've just been looking through the options which can and cannot be set in
> postgresql.conf and have a few points to raise.
>
> 1. There are some undocumented options which appear to relate to WAL:
>
> Name Variable Default Set by
>
> checkpoint_timeout CheckPointTimeout 300 Startup
> wal_buffers XLOGbuffers 8 Startup
> wal_files XLOGfiles 0 Startup
> wal_debug &XLOG_DEBU 0 Superuser
> commit_delay &CommitDelay 5 User
>
> Is there any text anywhere to explain what these do? (Point me to that or
> some commented code, and I'll write a documentation patch.)
>
> 2. The following command line options to postgres don't have an equivalent in
> postgresql.conf. Is that intentional? (I suppose it is in several cases,
> and I have left out some where it is obviously intentional.) I can't see
> why these items can't be put in the configuration file:
>
>
> Option Action
>
> -C Noversion = true [not documented in postgres man page]
> -D potential_Datadir = arg [set PGDATA]
> -E EchoQuery = true [echo queries to log]
> -e EuroDates = true [use European format for dates]
> -N UseNewLine = 0 [newline is not a query separator]
> -o [set stdout, stderr to file arg]
>
> 3. I see the -E is documented as being for stand-alone mode only; in fact it
> is useful for getting the query into the backend log in normal operation.
>
> 4. The documentation for -o is confusing:
>
> -o file-name
>
> Sends all debugging and error output to OutputFile. If the backend
> is running under the postmaster, error messages are still sent to
> the frontend process as well as to OutputFile, but debugging output
> is sent to the controlling tty of the postmaster (since only one
> file descriptor can be sent to an actual file).
>
> I think this is saying that, under the postmaster, debugging output does
> not get sent to OutputFile, and error messages are sent both to OutputFile
> and to the frontend. Is that correct?
>
> --
> Oliver Elphick Oliver(dot)Elphick(at)lfix(dot)co(dot)uk
> Isle of Wight http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver
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> ========================================
> "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his
> courts with praise. Be thankful unto him, and bless
> his name." Psalms 100:4
>
>
>

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