Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@dcc.uchile.cl> writes:
> I'm not sure exactly why this is a good idea. After all, if the systems
> runs out of memory while starting up, what can be expected later?
The issue isn't with startup, but with re-reading postgresql.conf due to
SIGHUP later on. We don't want to elog(ERROR) partway through that
process. Especially not in the postmaster, where elog(ERROR) is
tantamount to elog(FATAL). (But of course the postmaster shouldn't ever
run out of memory anyway...)
It's possible that this should all be rethought, but it would be a much
more wide-ranging change than we've been discussing.
regards, tom lane