Re: Overhauling GUCS

Josh Berkus wrote:
> Currently, PostgreSQL,conf and our set of GUC configurations suffer from
> 4 large problems:

As we have talked about it before, you know that I agree that the GUC system 
could use some improvements.  But I'm a bit surprised about some of your 
assessments.

> 1. Most people have no idea how to set these.

Could you clarify this?  I can't really believe that people are incapable of 
editing a configuration file.

> 2. The current postgresql.conf file is a huge mess of 194 options, the
> vast majority of which most users will never touch.

My opinion has always been that we should provide a default file with only the 
essential options instead of all of them.  I see this as a the major problem, 
because people are overwhelmed and consequently don't set anything.

> 3. GUCS lists are kept in 3 different places (guc.c, postgresql.conf,
> and the settings.sgml), which are only synched with each other manually.

While this is not ideal, I can't really see who this is a major problem, at 
least from the perspective of the user.

> 4. We don't seem to be getting any closer to autotuning.

True.  But how does your proposal address this?