Re: Parsing config files in a directory

On Mon, 26 Oct 2009, Alvaro Herrera wrote:

> some things are defined in postgresql.conf by initdb and you probably
> want to be able to change them by SET PERSISTENT anyway (e.g.
> lc_messages, listen_addresses, shared_buffers)

An obvious next step once the directory parsing is committed is to change
initdb to put all of its changes into a separate file. Ideally, 8.5 would
ship with a postgresql.conf having zero active settings, and the conf/
directory would have two entries:

initdb.conf : shared_buffers, lc_messages, listen_addresses, etc.
persistent.conf : Blank except for comment text

People who want to continue managing just the giant postgresql.conf are
free to collapse the initdb.conf back into the larger file instead. If we
wanted to make that transition easier, an option to initdb saying "do
things the old way" might make sense. I think the best we can do here is
make a path where new users who don't ask for anything special get a setup
that's easy for tools to work on, while not completely deprecating the old
approach for those who want it--but you have to ask for it.

--
* Greg Smith gsmith(at)gregsmith(dot)com http://www.gregsmith.com Baltimore, MD