Re: initdb change

On Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:42:21 -0700
David Fetter <david@fetter.org> wrote:

> > We either need to provide a way to initialize it at initdb, allow
> > xlogs to be in table space or add a GUC for the location.
> 
> There's already a way to specify where xlogs should be via
> -X/--xlogdir. 

Sorry should have checked 8.3 initdb instead of 8.2.

> What that doesn't do is put the xlogdir where a DBA
> would naturally expect to find it.  When that DBA doesn't find it in
> the place they expect, very bad knock-on decisions are likely to
> result.

O.k. when using 8.3 I did this:

initdb -D /tmp/foo -X /tmp/xlogs

And I got:

/tmp/foo/pg_xlog which is a link to /tmp/xlogs

That seems perfectly logical. If I (without removing the old initdb) do
this:

/usr/lib/postgresql/8.3/bin/initdb -D /tmp/bar -X /tmp/xlog

I get:

initdb: directory "/tmp/xlog" exists but is not empty
If you want to store the transaction log there, either
remove or empty the directory "/tmp/xlog".
initdb: removing data directory "/tmp/bar"

I just reread your original message a little slower and see that what
you want is if:

/var/lib/pgsql/data/ exists but is empty you can initdb within that
directory. However if there is anything in it you can not. You are
asking that if pg_xlog exists but is empty that we still be able to use
the DATADIR and you can pass existing so that it will also use pg_xlog
if it is empty.

My take would be to not add a new flag. Instead to implicitly allow it.
If initdb finds that DATADIR and pg_xlog is empty it will use both. 


Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake








> 
> Cheers,
> David.


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