Re: Re: ALTER SYSTEM SET command to change postgresql.conf parameters (RE: Proposal for Allow postgresql.conf values to be changed via SQL [review])

* Tom Lane (tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us) wrote:
> Amit Kapila <amit(dot)kapila(at)huawei(dot)com> writes:
> > On Monday, August 05, 2013 11:57 AM Tom Lane wrote:
> >> My point here is just that we should keep the parameter values in plain
> >> text files,
>
> > Here by text files, do you mean to say you are expecting
> > file-per-guc-setting?
>
> No, I don't think this argument really says much one way or the other
> about one-file vs one-file-per-GUC. I'm just lobbying against the
> "put them in a catalog" idea.

imv there are things which should be in a catalog and things which
shouldn't. I'm not sure that "can the postmaster start up if its wrong"
is necessairly the right test to use but the results tend to line up
with my expectations. postgresql.conf seems to have a number of items
which don't even make a lot of sense to set server-side: enable_* being
a good example. I know it *works* to set those in postgresql.conf, but
I dislike using postgresql.conf as documentation for what options exist.

I keep thinking that postgresql.conf should really be those items that
define how PG interacts with the OS (which tends to also line up with
"things the postmaster needs correct to start") and the rest of the
options should go somewhere else, perhaps as things which can be
configured through this ALTER SYSTEM option, which starts to sound more
like "default GUC values" for those items which take effect on
individual backend startup.

I've some more thoughts on this and will try to formulate them later
today.

Thanks,

Stephen