"John Sidney-Woollett" <johnsw@wardbrook.com> writes:
> Is there a way to set the default search path for the user 'FRED'
> permanently?
See ALTER USER. You can set per-user or per-database defaults for any
SETtable variable, not only search_path.
> If I am the postgres user and creating a function (for example) in a given
> schema, do I have to qualify ALL the objects referred to in the function
> by the schema prefix (if I don't want them in the public schema)?
It's a good idea. At the moment a function body is interpreted with the
call-time value of search_path. We've batted around the idea that it
should use the creation-time path, but nothing's been done about it.
> ps Is the 7.4 documentation less detailed on schemas than the 7.3
> docs?
I don't believe we've removed anything; rearranged, perhaps. Does
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/ddl-schemas.html
not cover the same ground that's in the 7.3 docs?
regards, tom lane