Re: location of the configuration files

Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > This way, people who start the database using the standard tools we
> > supply will know exactly what's going on when they get a "ps" listing.
>
> No. If you want ps to display, don't use environment variables. Many
> don't care --- especially those with only one postmaster.

You know that the code in pg_ctl doesn't send an explicit -D to the
postmaster even if pg_ctl itself is invoked with a -D argument, right?
The only way to make pg_ctl do that is by using the "-o" option.

A typical vendor-supplied install is going to invoke pg_ctl to do the
dirty work. That's why I'm focusing on pg_ctl.

I completely understand your need for keeping PGDATA in postmaster. I
don't understand why pg_ctl *shouldn't* be changed to invoke
postmaster with an explicit -D option. It might be desirable for ps
to not show any arguments to postmaster in some circumstances (I have
no idea what those would be), but why in the world would you want that
to be the *default*? Why would we want the default behavior to make
things harder on administrators and not easier?

--
Kevin Brown kevin(at)sysexperts(dot)com