Re: Configurable path to look up dynamic libraries

Lamar Owen <lamar.owen@wgcr.org> writes:
> Just because we've always done it one way does not that one way correct make.

Sure.

> We're one component of a system -- and the PostgreSQL Group has done such a 
> good job of being platform agnostic that the platform and systems issues are 
> almost second-class citizens.

Indeed, that I think is the underlying issue here.  "It's FHS compliant"
cuts no ice with people who don't run FHS-layout systems, and I don't
want to improve FHS compliancy at the price of making life more
difficult for others.  (Likewise for other RPM installation issues, as
you well know ;-))

I do think that the notion of a configure file path search (datadir then
sysconfdir) is reasonable if the security and file protection issues can
be ironed out.  But that will require some thought about separating
security-critical data from not-critical data.  I think we ought to keep
pg_hba.conf and subsidiary files (especially password files!) in datadir
*only*.  I'm not sure about the other config files; up to now no one's
paid any attention to security issues for those files, knowing that they
were all kept in the same place.  We might need to reorganize their
contents.
        regards, tom lane