Re: Remove vacuum_defer_cleanup_age

On 10/18/2016 01:28 PM, Robert Haas wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 4:18 PM, Josh Berkus <josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com> wrote:
>> On 10/12/2016 05:00 PM, Robert Haas wrote:
>>> On Sun, Oct 9, 2016 at 9:51 PM, Josh Berkus <josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com> wrote:
>>>> Given that hot_standby_feedback is pretty bulletproof now, and a lot of
>>>> the work in reducing replay conflicts, I think the utility of
>>>> vacuum_defer_cleanup_age is at an end. I really meant so submit a patch
>>>> to remove it to 9.6, but it got away from me.
>>>>
>>>> Any objections to removing the option in 10?
>>>
>>> I'm not sure I see the point.
>>
>> Redusing the number of configuration variables is an a-priori good. In
>> aggregate, the more knobs we have, the harder it is to learn how to
>> admin Postgres. Therefore any time a config variable becomes obsolete,
>> we should remove it.
>
> Meh. I agree that more configuration knobs makes it harder to learn
> to configure the system, but we've got enough of them that removing
> exactly one isn't going to make a material difference. Against that,
> if you are wrong about it being obsolete and there are actually people
> relying on it heavily, those people will be very sad if we remove it,
> and unless they read this mailing list, we probably won't find out
> until it's too late.

Based on that argument, we would never be able to remove any
configuration parameter ever.

--
--
Josh Berkus
Red Hat OSAS
(any opinions are my own)