Re: Renaming of pg_xlog and pg_clog

On Fri, Oct 14, 2016 at 9:56 AM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:

> Jim Nasby <Jim(dot)Nasby(at)BlueTreble(dot)com> writes:
> > On 10/14/16 9:06 AM, Stephen Frost wrote:
> >> It'd probably be easier to move the things that are *not* PG internal
> >> (eg: config files, et al) *out* of the data directory and into somewhere
> >> sensible, like /etc ...
>
> > I do think it would be an improvement to segregate things users are
> > expected to touch (*.conf and pg_log are what come to mind) from
> > everything else, which could easily be done by moving everything else to
> > an internal/ directory. I agree that's not much of an improvement for
> > pg_[cx]log, but we could create internal/ as well as rename some things.
>
> I can't get excited about that at all. It will just get in the way of
> the actually useful end goal we had for directory restructuring, which
> was to separate data to be copied by pg_basebackup from data not to be
> copied by it. And in reality, people who don't understand that the
> contents of PGDATA should be treated as "hands off unless documented
> otherwise" are not going to be any less likely to shoot themselves in
> the foot just because there's a directory named "internal" or
> "here_be_dragons" or "keep_out_this_means_you" in the way.

+1. I think we should move the don't-include-in-backup files to a separate
directory for *technical* reasons.

I don't think moving files that are already supposed to be internal into a
directory called internal is going to help much, an din particular not for
xlog. If we don't rename it, the problem will remain.

And for the "don't touch" part, if anything we should move the config files
into a subdirectory of PGDATA and not the other way around.

--
Magnus Hagander
Me: http://www.hagander.net/
Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/