Re: Explicit configuration file

Bruce Momjian wrote:
>
> > Does anyone see any value to these mods? I wanted to be able to run multiple
> > PostgreSQL instances on the same machine, and having the ability to keep these
> > control files in a central location and share the HBA control files between
> > databases may be helpful for admins. It will certainly make my life
> easier.
>
> Isn't it easier to just use symlinks?
>

There is a sort of chicken and egg poblem with PostgreSQL administration. Since
the settings are not in the "etc" directory, you need to know where PostgreSQL
is installed before you can administer it. If you have multiple systems,
configured differently, you have to hunt around to find your PostgreSQL
directory on the machine on which you are working.

We use a "push" system to push out a whole PostgreSQL data directory to
multiple boxes. It would be good to be able to specify default configuration
differences between the master the slaves without having to edit the snap shot.

At our site, all the configuration files are in a centralized directory and
under CVS, except one. Guess which.

Symlinks don't copy well via ssh.

Having the configuration files outside a standard directory, ala "/etc" is not
very UNIX like.

I could run:
initdb -D/u01/pgsql
su pgsql -c "postgresql -C /etc/pgsql/mydb.conf"

And get all the settings I specify without having to copy files.

I could go on, and they are all just nit-picks to be sure, but it just seems
"cleaner" to be able to put the configuration in a separate place than the
data.