Re: DOCS - System Applications 'datadir' parameter

On Thu, Feb 19, 2026 at 8:29 AM Andreas Karlsson <andreas(at)proxel(dot)se> wrote:
>
> On 2/18/26 8:27 AM, Peter Smith wrote:
> > In most places, each of the Server Application documentation pages [1]
> > refers to the directory where the database cluster lives as 'datadir'.
> > However, a few places called it 'directory' instead.
> >
> > This patch changes the outliers also to 'datadir', making everything
> > more consistent.
>
> The change looks good!

Thanks.

>
> But I wonder if there isn't an issue with our XML. If you look at
> initdb.sgml you will se that there is a space before datadir, but if you
> look at e.g. pg_checksums you will then notice a lack of space, both in
> the source and the generated HTML, so the space in initdb.sgml was
> clearly added for a reason. Do you understand our documentation pipeline
> good enough to know why that space seems to be necessary?
>

Yeah, I've also noticed this before. I have always assumed whoever
authored those pages did not like the rendering of the <replaceable>
jammed against the previous synopsis group.

FYI - I have posted a separate thread to get to the bottom of the
mystery, and to ask what, if anything, to do about it.

======
Kind Regards,
Peter Smith.
Fujitsu Australia