Re: Improving postgresql.conf

Andreas Pflug <pgadmin@pse-consulting.de> writes:
> How about vars overridden on the postmaster command line? Similar issue, 
> I believe. Naively, I'd assume that my last instruction (in this case: 
> changing postgresql.conf and SIGHUP) would determine processing, which 
> is obviously wrong if I read the docs correctly.

That was another point I was about to make, which is that there are lots
of other reasons why the active value of some config variable might not
be what postgresql.conf says.  We are *not* ripping out the entire GUC
facility just because some people haven't bothered to read the
documentation about it ;-).

Maybe the real problem here is that people think that postgresql.conf
is the place to find out about current settings, and they just need to
be re-educated to look at pg_settings or SHOW ALL instead.
        regards, tom lane