Re: PostgreSQL pollutes the file system

On 2019-Mar-27, Tom Lane wrote:

> Alvaro Herrera <alvherre(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com> writes:
> > I suppose that if you're a Postgres developer, you naturally expect that
> > "createdb" creates a Postgres DB. What if you use multiple database
> > systems, and then only occasionally have to do DBA tasks? I find this
> > POV that createdb doesn't need renaming a bit self-centered.
>
> Nobody is defending the existing names as being something we'd pick
> if we were picking them today. The question is whether changing them
> is worth the pain. (And, one more time, may I point out that most
> of the pain will be borne by people not on this mailing list, hence
> unable to vote here.) I don't think there is any reasonable argument
> that said pain will be justified for any of them except maybe createuser
> and dropuser.

The implicit argument here is that existing users are a larger
population than future users. I, for one, don't believe that. I think
taking no action is a disservice to future users. Also, that modifying
the code will be utterly painful and that less administrative code will be
written in the future than has already been written.

We *could* run a poll on twitter/slack/website to get a feeling on a
wider population. That would still reach mostly existing Postgres
users, but at least it would be much more diverse than this group.

--
Álvaro Herrera https://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services