Re: ALTER SYSTEM vs symlink

On 11/02/2015 09:36 AM, Tom Lane wrote:
> Andrew Dunstan <andrew(at)dunslane(dot)net> writes:
>> I don't know if this was discussed at the time ALTER SYSTEM was
>> implemented, but I have just discovered that if postgresql.auto.conf is
>> a symlink to a file elsewhere, ALTER SYSTEM will happily break that link
>> and write its own local copy. That strikes me as rather unfriendly. Why
>> not just truncate the file rather than unlink it as it's being
>> rewritten? Even if we don't want to do that a warning in the docs might
>> help users avoid the "mistake" I just made.
> Frankly, that behavior strikes me as a good idea. There is no situation,
> IMV, where it's sane to try to put a symlink there.
>
>

OK. I was experimenting with some backup procedures, and I have since
abandoned the approach I was following. However, it does seem like it's
worth documenting the behaviour.

cheers

andrew