Re: Glossary and initdb definition work for "superuser" and database/cluster

On Tue, Nov 1, 2022 at 6:59 PM David G. Johnston <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com>
wrote:

>
> P.S. I'm now looking at the very first paragraph to initdb more closely,
> not liking "single server instance" all that much and wondering how to fit
> in "cluster user" there - possibly by saying something like "...managed by
> a single server process, and physical data directory, whose effective user
> and owner respectively is called the cluster user. That user must exist
> and be used to execute this program."
>
> Then the whole "initdb must be run as..." paragraph can probably just go
> away. Moving the commentary about "root", again a non-Windows thing, to
> the notes area.
>
>
Version 2 attached, some significant re-working. Starting to think that
initdb isn't the place for some of this content - in particular the stuff
I'm deciding to move down to the Notes section. Might consider moving some
of it to the Server Setup and Operation chapter 19 - Creating Cluster (or
nearby...) [1].

I settled on "cluster owner" over "cluster user" and made the terminology
consistent throughout initdb and the glossary (haven't looked at chapter 19
yet). Also added it to the glossary.

Moved quite a bit of material to notes from the description and options and
expanded upon what had already been said based upon various discussions
I've been part of on the mailing lists.

Decided to call out, in the glossary, the effective equivalence of database
superuser and cluster owner. Which acts as an explanation as to why root
is prohibited to be a cluster owner.

David J.

[1] https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/creating-cluster.html