Re: [PATCH] Rename "getdatabaseencoding()" to "pg_database_encoding()", and document

Daniel Gustafsson <daniel(at)yesql(dot)se> writes:
>> On 17 Jul 2026, at 08:44, Ian Lawrence Barwick <barwick(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
>> It was noted here [1] that we have the undocumented SQL function
>> "getdatabaseencoding()", used mainly in regression tests and a couple
>> of psql queries. While considering a documentation patch, it occurred
>> to me that it's a horrible function name which doesn't look like other
>> public functions, and we already have "pg_client_encoding()", so why not
>> rename it to match that while we're at it?

> This function seems to be referred to in extensions, how about adding keeping
> the existin name and adding the new name as an alias? It would keep existing
> code from breaking and cause less churn in the code.

Yeah, the odds that we would remove the old name (without a multi-year
deprecation period) are zero, full stop.

However, I can't really get excited about this proposal in the first
place. There are plenty of ugly and inconsistent names in Postgres,
and an enormous amount of more-valuable work to do.

regards, tom lane