Jan Wieck <JanWieck@Yahoo.com> writes:
> Tom Lane wrote:
>> On second thought, that just moves the race condition upstream (to the
>> person editing postgresql.conf) ... so never mind that idea.
> I didn't actually look at that part of the code yet ... why would any
> backend read postgresql.conf?
At SIGHUP, the postmaster re-reads postgresql.conf, and each backend
must do so too --- there's no other way for pre-existing backends to
learn about changed values. The assumption is that this happens over a
short enough timespan that it's okay from the perspective of the person
editing postgresql.conf. But if newly started backends were to read
postgresql.conf when they start, that would be bad news for someone
trying to edit postgresql.conf, because there'd be no way to know when
it would happen.
regards, tom lane