Re: listening addresses

Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net> writes:
> Tom Lane wrote:
>> Andrew Dunstan <andrew@dunslane.net> writes:
>>> How about this: we replace tcpip_socket and virtual_host with 
>>> a new var called listen_addresses, which can have values of "local", 
>>> "all", or a list of addresses? The default would be "local" and -i would 
>>> correspond to "all".
>> 
>> No objection here.  You could also allow "none" (or maybe that falls out
>> of the list case by writing an empty list), with the understanding that
>> "none" is a useless setting on Windows or any other platform that
>> doesn't support Unix sockets.

> I had thought about "none". I have no strong feelings either way, 
> althought you are right that it would be redundant.

Also, "local" would be better spelled "localhost", which would make it
not a special case but just the same as writing a list containing just
that one name.  That leaves only "all" as a special case.  Perhaps you
could write "all" as "*", and thereby not have any special keywords
needed in the variable: it's either "*" or a list of addresses or names.
The advantage of this is you need not worry about collisions of DNS
names with keywords.
        regards, tom lane