Re: Parsing config files in a directory

On Mon, 26 Oct 2009, Kevin Grittner wrote:

> We do find the include capabilities useful. For example, for our 72
> production servers for county Circuit Court systems, we copy an
> identical postgresql.conf file to each county, with the last line
> being an include to an overrides conf file in /etc/. For most
> counties that file is empty. For counties where we've installed extra
> RAM or where data is not fully cached, we override settings like
> effective_cache_size or the page costs. I can't see where any of the
> options under discussion would do much to help an environment like
> ours -- they seem more likely to help shops with fewer servers or more
> relaxed deployment procedures.

That's exactly a use case the "parsing config files in a directory"
feature aims to make easier to manage. You can just mix and match files
that adjust a subset of the postgresql.conf without having to explicitly
include them. For this sort of situation, you could create a base set of
configuration changes, then a set that customizes for less common server
configurations, and possibly even server-specific ones. Copy in the
subset from that master list of possible configuration sets that apply to
this server and you're done.

Since variations on this feedback keep coming up, let's be be clear here:
there is nothing this patch aims to add you can't already do with include
files. It's just a way to make more aggressive use of include files
easier to manage, and therefore make doing so in the default configuration
less objectionable.

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