Re: pgsql: Document a few more regression test hazards.

On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 4:38 PM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> Robert Haas <rhaas(at)postgresql(dot)org> writes:
>> Document a few more regression test hazards.
>
> guaibasaurus doesn't like this patch: you need to be more careful
> about links, because the regression instructions are supposed to
> compile as a standalone document.
>
> Easy answer is to get rid of the link to RUNTIME-CONFIG-QUERY-ENABLE.
> I think there's some hack you can use to make it sort-of-work standalone
> too; look at the release notes for examples.

Fascinating. I knew that there was a HISTORY file that got built from
the release notes, but I didn't realize there was something similar
being built from regress.sgml. I'll rephase that passage to avoid the
link.

I wonder if these standalone things are really worthwhile. The whole
point of this, ten years ago, was that people who were trying to get
started with PostgreSQL might not have had neither the doc toolchain
nor convenient Internet access available. Plain text documentation
was essential for getting off the ground. This seems much less
relevant today; is the annoyance of not being able to use links
everywhere really buying us anything at this point?

--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company