Re: Command names

"Adam Lang" <aalang(at)rutgersinsurance(dot)com> writes:
> I'd assume a problem with changing all the commands now is that it may break
> a lot of people's scripts and programs.

Well, we've done it before ;-). If memory serves, the create/drop
scripts *were* named pg_xxx a few years back. I forget the reasons
that were advanced for changing their names, but Keith should go
search the archives for that discussion if he wants to pursue the
proposal seriously. Adam does have a point though, which is that
the Postgres community has grown since then, so there'd be that
many more people inconvenienced by a change.

I don't think you will get any support for renaming psql; that name
is wired into people's fingers, not to mention their scripts. The
not-so-commonly-used programs could be renamed without quite so much
annoyance, perhaps.

BTW, there is a closely related discussion going on right now in
pghackers: do we want to make it possible to install the PG programs
into a standard directory like /usr/local/bin, and if so doesn't that
mean they'd better have less-generic names?

regards, tom lane