Re: Parsing config files in a directory

Greg Smith <gsmith(at)gregsmith(dot)com> writes:
> People who want to continue managing just the giant postgresql.conf are
> free to collapse the initdb.conf back into the larger file instead. If we
> wanted to make that transition easier, an option to initdb saying "do
> things the old way" might make sense. I think the best we can do here is
> make a path where new users who don't ask for anything special get a setup
> that's easy for tools to work on, while not completely deprecating the old
> approach for those who want it--but you have to ask for it.

I don't think we need an explicit option for that. What we need is an
'includedir' directive at the bottom of postgresql.conf. Someone who
prefers to let manual settings override anything else might choose to
move it to the top, or even comment it out (at the cost of breaking
SET PERSISTENT). Everybody is happy, trogdolyte or otherwise.

I would personally suggest having initdb dump its settings right into
persistent.conf, rather than having a separate file for them, but it's
not a big deal either way.

(BTW, why do we actually need an includedir mechanism for this?
A simple include of a persistent.conf file seems like it would be
enough.)

regards, tom lane