> Exactly. However, I can work around the GUC ordering issue just by
> having the postmaster check all the required variables before launching
> autovac. What I wanted to do was have GUC prevent autovacuum = true
> when the stats collector is not enabled, reguardless of what is in
> postgresql.conf.
If the user has requested autovacuum, then why not just enable it? The
user shouldn't need to know that autovacuum is implemented via widget X
-- enable widget X for the user.
Are you also going to complain about a default statement_timeout that
doesn't allow vacuum to finish, or will you work around it by setting
statement_timeout = 0 on your connection?