Kevin Brown <kevin@sysexperts.com> writes:
> Is it possible for the database engine to properly deal with a
> database when it is told to use a different database encoding than the
> one the database was initdb'd with?
It can't be "told to use a different database encoding". However, the
default *client* encoding matches the database encoding, and that is
something that can be set in the config file.
>> If we do it the way I suggested (dump into the datadir, which is
>> initially empty, same as always) then it cannot overwrite your existing
>> config files. Think of it as providing a suggested config file to
>> compare against what you have.
> There is one minor complication: what if there's an existing config
> file in the target directory?
If there's anything at all in the target directory, initdb refuses to
run.
regards, tom lane