Re: [COMMITTERS] pgsql-server/src backend/tcop/postgres.cbacke

Oliver Elphick <olly(at)lfix(dot)co(dot)uk> writes:
> On Tue, 2002-08-13 at 14:24, Tom Lane wrote:
>> But there's more than one way to record the xlog location in the data
>> directory. If you don't like a symlink, what of putting it in
>> postgresql.conf as a postmaster-start-time-only config option?

> Please don't!

> The Debian package at least provides a default postgresql.conf and it
> will be all too easy for someone installing an updated package to let
> the default file overwrite the existing configuration. That could be
> disastrous.

Ouch. That's a mighty good point ... although if we were to implement
Marc's idea of matching signature files, we'd certainly catch the error.

If we didn't, we'd need to use a separate, one-purpose config file that
just records the xlog location. Curiously enough, that seems to me to
be exactly what a symlink does, except that the symlink is OS-level code
rather than something we have to write for ourselves. So I'm back to
thinking that a symlink is a perfectly respectable answer.

regards, tom lane