Re: Removing postgres -f command line option

Tom Lane wrote:
> Heikki Linnakangas <heikki(dot)linnakangas(at)enterprisedb(dot)com> writes:
> > While looking at Shigeru Hanada's foreign join pushdown patch, I noticed
> > a command line option that I didn't know to exist:
>
> > $ postgres --help
> > ...
> > Developer options:
> > -f s|i|n|m|h forbid use of some plan types
>
> Hmm, I thought I'd fixed that help message to match reality recently.
>
> > That seems completely useless to me, because you can also do "-c
> > enable_seqscan=off". Any objections to removing the -f option altogether?
>
> I use it. See also src/test/regress/regressplans.sh, which would become
> greatly less wieldy if it had to spell out the switches long-form.

I think it is hard to argue that such a user-visible flag is
reasonable, even if it helps backend developers avoid some keystrokes.

I think flags used only by backend developers should be things that can
_only_ be done with flags.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ It's impossible for everything to be true. +