John McKown <john(dot)archie(dot)mckown(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> Just curious. Why a plain text file rather than a system table?
Because you'd have no way to update such a table, if you can't
start the database or connect to it. So that approach isn't
suitable for people whose database has been broken by one of
these system updates. (This is largely the same reason why,
eg, postgresql.conf isn't a table.)
regards, tom lane