Re: units in postgresql.conf comments

On 30.05.2013 10:52, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> On 05/30/2013 12:01 AM, Heikki Linnakangas wrote:
>
>> We could make it mandatory to specify the unit in the value. Ie. throw
>> an error on "wal_sender_timeout = 50":
>>
>> ERROR: unit required for option "wal_sender_timeout"
>> HINT: Valid units for this parameter are "ms", "s", "min", "h", and "d".
>>
>> Then you wouldn't need a comment to explain what the unit of a naked
>> value is. The only problem I see with that is backwards-compatibility.
>> Old postgresql.conf files containing naked values would no longer work.
>> But all you'd need to do is to add in the units, which would work on
>> older versions too, and would be good for readability anyway.
>
> I like this idea with one addition. We should have a default unit for
> each. For wal_sender_timeout seconds makes sense, but for
> checkpoint_timeout minutes makes sense (for example).

Uh, if specifying the unit is mandatory, what exactly would the default
unit mean?

- Heikki