pg_guc

Hi Peter,

We have a server side GUI utility that among other things let us configure GUC
variables. We badly need to know what variables exist in the specific backend
version, which are the min and max values and if possible a description. The
option is to hardwire these things into the code which is very awkward (and we
want it to work with different backend versions, backends compiled differently
etc.).

As there are some very useful utilities that we already use (besides pg_ctl)
like pg_config and pg_controldata, we thought of having a pg_guc one so that we
could call it in the same bin directory as the postmaster to obtain info about
that postmaster's defined GUC variables. Note that this is a configuration
utility, so we don't have, in most instances, a database to connect to (as we
haven't even initialized PGDATA in most cases).

Aizaz have, with hints from Tom Lane, implemented a basic version of such
utility. We thought that this can be used by other tools as well, so it would
be nice to have it added to the 7.4 release.

Possible future extensions to this program, which already has knowledge about
GUC variables, would be adding the capability of changing variable values in an
specific postgresql.conf file (by specifying -D perhaps) or even generating a
sample postgresql.conf file (this will ensure it always match the latest code).

Anyway, I hope you find this useful and people find the motivation to enhance
it. Aizaz is already working on the internationalization.

Best regards,
Fernando

--
Fernando Nasser
Red Hat - Toronto E-Mail: fnasser(at)redhat(dot)com
2323 Yonge Street, Suite #300
Toronto, Ontario M4P 2C9