Re: [BUGS] pg_service.conf ignores dbname parameter

Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net> writes:
> Regardless of this particular issue, I think it would be useful if,
> under some conditions to be identified, some service were taken as
> default if nothing is specied in libpq. That would eliminate the need
> to set environment variables, which is undesirable in many situations.

That's a thought. Maybe if pg_service.conf exists and contains a
section named "default", we use whatever settings are present there?
(Obviously we'd not want the dbname to be forced by this, but I think
we've already agreed to get rid of that behavior.)

About the only downside I can see to this is that every connection
would incur the overhead of an attempted file opening. That might be
thought to be too much overhead, at least by people who have no use
for the feature. But in comparison to what will happen on the server
side during backend startup, it's probably pretty negligible.

BTW, why is it that pg_service.conf is system-wide? Personally I'd
think it more useful to seek settings in ~/.pg_service.conf.

regards, tom lane