Re: Re: ALTER SYSTEM SET command to change postgresql.conf parameters (RE: Proposal for Allow postgresql.conf values to be changed via SQL [review])

On 8/1/13 10:47 AM, David Johnston wrote:
> Minor request: could someone enlighten me as to why making the directory
> location a compile-time option is undesirable.

The ongoing argument here is whether to allow moving the directory at 
all, or to make it fixed to $PGDATA the way recovery.conf is.  If you 
accept that it should float, then it actually needs to be a start time 
option.  Software like Debian moves around the postgresql.conf like this:

pg_ctl -c config_file=/etc/postgresql/9.3/main/postgresql.conf ...

The way this argument is going the last few days, I'm starting to think 
that it's worth breaking this style of config directory setup out into 
its own feature now.

Whether or not ALTER SYSTEM SET takes advantage of the config directory 
or not seems a still raging question.  I've been coupling the two 
together because I think the design of ALTER SYSTEM SET should consider 
a config directory based approach.  But from the perspective of what can 
get committed first, the config directory really should go first.

-- 
Greg Smith   2ndQuadrant US    greg@2ndQuadrant.com   Baltimore, MD
PostgreSQL Training, Services, and 24x7 Support www.2ndQuadrant.com