Re: location of the configuration files

mlw <pgsql@mohawksoft.com> writes:
> The idea that a, more or less, arbitrary data location determines the 
> database configuration is wrong. It should be obvious to any 
> administrator that a configuration file location which controls the 
> server is the "right" way to do it.

I guess I'm just dense, but I entirely fail to see why this is the One
True Way To Do It.  What you seem to be proposing (ignoring
syntactic-sugar issues) is that we replace "postmaster -D
/some/data/dir" by "postmaster -config /some/config/file".  I am not
seeing the nature of the improvement.  It looks to me like the sysadmin
must now grant the Postgres DBA write access on *two* directories, viz
/some/config/ and /wherever/the/data/directory/is.  How is that better
than granting write access on one directory?  Given that we can't manage
to standardize the data directory location across multiple Unixen, how
is it that we will be more successful at standardizing a config file
location?

All I see here is an arbitrary break with our past practice.  I do not
see any net improvement.
        regards, tom lane