Re: TODO questions

Tom Lane wrote:
> Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us> writes:
>
>>Jim C. Nasby wrote:
>>
>>>o Allow commenting of variables in postgresql.conf to restore them
>>>to defaults
>>>
>>>This doesn't work already?
>
>
>>The idea here is the when you comment something out, it should restore
>>its default. Right now it keeps the previously uncommented out value,
>>which confuses people.
>
>
> But the contrary position is that a comment is a comment, not something
> that should act to change the state of the postmaster.
>

I understand what you mean, but to be fair, it's not the comment that is
changing the behavior of the postmaster. Rather, it's the absence of a
setting in the configuration file that would suggest using the default.

It seems to me like a question of whether the configuration file should
be treated as:
a) the set of options for the postmaster
b) a set of changes to the options for the postmaster

The current behavior is (b), but many think (a) is more intuitive in the
context of a configuration file. Perhaps (b) would be more intuitive if
it were in the context of (for example) an admin tool that took options
on standard input.

Regards,
Jeff Davis