Re: Autovacuum vs statement_timeout

I have added a TODO:

>       o Set up autovacuum to ignore statement_timeout set in
>         postgresql.conf
>
>         http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2007-03/msg01753.php

and documented this behavior with the attached patch;  backpatched to 8.3.X.

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Magnus Hagander wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 17, 2007 at 10:33:21PM -0400, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> > > I think that is too strong an assumption, which is why I'm planning to
> > > back-patch the change to reset statement_timeout to 0 on autovacuum till
> > > 8.0, as discussed.  I think I should also backpatch the change to set
> > > zero_damaged_pages as well (which is not on 8.0 AFAIR).
> > >
> > > It's very very easy to change things in postgresql.conf.  Actually
> > > knowing what you are doing (i.e. thinking on the consequences on VACUUM
> > > and such) is a whole another matter.
> >
> > Frankly, setting statement_timeout in postgresql.conf seems so risky in
> > so many ways, perhaps we just need to document that the parameter
> > probably should not be set in postgresql.conf, and why.
>
> I'd suggest doing both. Tell people that it's dangerous (probably to the
> point of a comment in the sample config file), but *also* force it in
> pg_dump since you can't really expect people to read the documentation.
>
> //MAgnus

--
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://postgres.enterprisedb.com

  + If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +
Index: doc/src/sgml/config.sgml
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RCS file: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/config.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.170
diff -c -c -r1.170 config.sgml
*** doc/src/sgml/config.sgml    10 Mar 2008 12:55:13 -0000    1.170
--- doc/src/sgml/config.sgml    11 Mar 2008 15:38:41 -0000
***************
*** 3877,3882 ****
--- 3877,3888 ----
          logged.  A value of zero (the default) turns off the
          limitation.
         </para>
+
+        <para>
+         Setting <varname>statement_timeout</> in
+         <filename>postgresql.conf</> is not recommended because it
+         affects all sessions, including autovacuum.
+        </para>
        </listitem>
       </varlistentry>