Re: Question about "ident_file" in postgres.conf

On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 9:08 AM, Tianyin Xu <tixu(at)cs(dot)ucsd(dot)edu> wrote:

> Hi, all,
>
> I have a question regarding the "ident_file" configuration entry.
>
> Why the server refused to start without specifying the "ident_file", but
> it never cares whether the given "ident_file" is valid or not? In other
> word, a misconfigured non-existent path for "ident_file" can also start the
> server with a background message.
>
> This does not make too much sense to me. I think the system behavior
> should be opposite. If the user didn't specify the "ident_file", the pg
> server should ignore. But if the user specifies one and that one is not
> valid, the user should stop because it clearly means the path is
> misconfigured.
>
> Is there any concern here? Otherwise I would suggest and provide a patch
> to check the validity of the "ident_file" like what pg is doing for
> "data_directory" and "hba_file".
>

This is definitely a known problem. It's actually on the TODO list already,
just not phrased in a way that makes it likely to be found.

It should be treated the same way as the hba_file. So sure, please do
provide a patch for that if you can.

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