On Tue, 27 Oct 2009, Greg Stark wrote:
> If they all had to edit the same file then they have to deal with
> writing out values and also reading them back. Everyone would need a
> config file parser and have to make deductions about what other tools
> were trying to do and how to interact with them.
Exactly, that's the situation we're trying to escape from now in a
nutshell.
To answer Tom's question about providing better guidelines for tool
authors, I was hoping to provide the first such tool and submit a patch
for refactoring initdb using the same approach before 8.5 is done. I'd
rather see that nailed down with a concrete proof of concept attached that
implements a candidate approach by example rather than to just talk about
it in general. I don't think that needs to hold up work on this patch
though, particularly given that I'm dependent on this one being committed
for my plan to work.
--
* Greg Smith gsmith@gregsmith.com http://www.gregsmith.com Baltimore, MD