Re: configuration parameter descriptions

On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 11:48 AM, Ray Stell <stellr(at)cns(dot)vt(dot)edu> wrote:
> I'd like to make a general suggestion on configuration parameter
> documentation.  I'd like to see a high level entry as to whether the
> parameter can be changed on the fly or not.  I think the Oracle docs refer
> to this as static/dynamic.

For a description of the "context" of various settings in Postgres, see:
http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/view-pg-settings.html

> Currently, dynamic parameters, those that can be changed in a running
> cluster, can be identified by the fact that no statement is made.  This
> can be confusing.
>
> An example of the "static" entry follows:
>
>  listen_addresses (string)
>
>   parmater description .........
>   This parameter can only be set at server start.
>
> This might be communicated with something like:
>
>  listen_addresses (string) /static

We actually had a discussion recently about the best way to specify
the context of all the various settings, such as listen_addresses. I
think we had consensus that it'd be nice to have a standard way of
documenting this, but there were a few ways to do so, and no one
stepped up with a patch. That's where you might come in :-)

Reading through the thread again, I maybe like Alvaro's suggestion:
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-docs/2010-12/msg00017.php

of spelling out
| "this setting has context foo"

in some standard way and place (e.g. as the last line of the
description for each setting) for all such settings.

> I'd be willing to work on this adaptation if you need help.
> I'd need some introduction to your text management.

Thanks for offering to help!

From a git checkout [1], you'll want to modify primarily
./doc/src/sgml/config.sgml. If you're familiar with HTML, the SGML
syntax should be easy enough to pick up. See the doc building guide
[2] for how to build the resulting HTML pages locally and see the
results of your changes.

[1] http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Working_with_Git
[2] http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/docguide-build.html