Re: [PATCH] Stop ALTER SYSTEM from making bad assumptions

Re: Tomas Vondra 2019-08-03 <20190803124111(dot)2aaddumd7url5wmq(at)development>
> If we really want to give external tools a sensible (and optional) API
> to access the file, a simple command-line tool seems much better. Say we
> have something like
>
> pg_config_file -f PATH --set KEY VALUE
> pg_config_file -f PATH --get KEY

Fwiw, Debian has pg_conftool (based on the perl lib around
PgCommon.pm):

NAME
pg_conftool - read and edit PostgreSQL cluster configuration files

SYNOPSIS
pg_conftool [options] [version cluster] [configfile] command

DESCRIPTION
pg_conftool allows to show and set parameters in PostgreSQL configuration files.

If version cluster is omitted, it defaults to the default cluster (see user_clusters(5) and postgresqlrc(5)). If configfile is
omitted, it defaults to postgresql.conf. configfile can also be a path, in which case version cluster is ignored.

OPTIONS
-b, --boolean
Format boolean value as on or off (not for "show all").

-s, --short
Show only the value (instead of key = value pair).

-v, --verbose
Verbose output.

--help
Print help.

COMMANDS
show parameter|all
Show a parameter, or all present in this config file.

set parameter value
Set or update a parameter.

remove parameter
Remove (comment out) a parameter from a config file.

edit
Open the config file in an editor. Unless $EDITOR is set, vi is used.

SEE ALSO
user_clusters(5), postgresqlrc(5)

AUTHOR
Christoph Berg <myon(at)debian(dot)org>

Debian 2019-07-15 PG_CONFTOOL(1)