Re: Parsing config files in a directory

Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> I guess all I'm saying is that if we took the approach of making SET
> PERSISTENT rewrite postgresql.conf, we actually could let people do it
> either way they pleased without the complexity of having multiple
> files.

You keep saying that, but what you don't seem to get is that that
amounts to telling the people who want to go slow that they should
go jump in a lake. The moment they even experiment with SET PERSISTENT,
everything they've ever done with postgresql.conf goes up in smoke.
This is not going to be acceptable.

Furthermore, that approach is not especially simple from the tools'
standpoint either, because then the minimum bar for doing anything at
all is the ability to parse postgresql.conf, remove conflicting old
settings, and add your own. Even without any comment support, that is
an order of magnitude harder than just dropping a prebuilt file into a
directory, which is feasible for at least some use-cases with the
directory approach.

regards, tom lane