Re: Second paragraph a little bit misleading

On Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 08:25:56AM +0100, Laurenz Albe wrote:
> On Thu, 2025-02-20 at 11:38 -0500, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > On Tue, Feb 11, 2025 at 02:00:10PM +0000, PG Doc comments form wrote:
> > > Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/17/checksums.html
> > > 
> > > I think that the first sentence of the second paragraph in this page is a
> > > little bit misleading. The first paragraph states that checksums are not
> > > enabled by default. The first sentence in the second paragraph sounds like
> > > it IS enabled by default when using initdb, but you have to pass -k
> > > explicitly.
> > 
> > I can see your point.  Attached is a doc patch that improves it.  I
> > chose very simple language and plan to backpatch this to all supported
> > versions.
> >
> > diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/wal.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/wal.sgml
> > index 52b5b8f793b..705ca682777 100644
> > --- a/doc/src/sgml/wal.sgml
> > +++ b/doc/src/sgml/wal.sgml
> > @@ -246,7 +246,7 @@
> >    </para>
> >  
> >    <para>
> > -   Checksums are normally enabled when the cluster is initialized using <link
> > +   Checksums can be enabled when the cluster is initialized using <link
> >     linkend="app-initdb-data-checksums"><application>initdb</application></link>.
> >     They can also be enabled or disabled at a later time as an offline
> >     operation. Data checksums are enabled or disabled at the full cluster
> 
> The change looks good for the back branches, but the default has changed
> in v18: now checksums are the default.  So "can be enabled" doesn't sound
> right for v18.  I'd leave "are normally enabled" in HEAD.

Yes, I was confused about that too, but I think we changed the code for
the development branch and if we decide to keep the new default, we will
change the docs later.  I didn't want to interfere with that.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        https://momjian.us
  EDB                                      https://enterprisedb.com

  Do not let urgent matters crowd out time for investment in the future.