Re: ALTER SYSTEM SET command to change postgresql.conf parameters (RE: Proposal for Allow postgresql.conf values to be changed via SQL [review])

* Tom Lane (tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us) wrote:
> Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net> writes:
> > * Alvaro Herrera (alvherre@2ndquadrant.com) wrote:
> >> The conf.d/ path would be relative to postgresql.conf, so there's no
> >> need for Debian to patch anything.
>
> > Uhhh, I really don't see that working, at all...
>
> Why not?  conf.d is for installable files, AIUI.  What we need to
> be writable is auto.conf, but I thought we'd agreed that would live
> inside $PGDATA.

I agree that auto.conf should live in $PGDATA, but I really don't like
the idea of conf.d being relative to some other existing file.  It
should be included through an 'includedir' option, not just picked up as
some magic directory name, and therefore consider the current
arrangement of parameters in Debian:

data_directory = '/var/lib/postgresql/9.2/main'
hba_file = '/etc/postgresql/9.2/main/pg_hba.conf'
ident_file = '/etc/postgresql/9.2/main/pg_ident.conf'

and postgres is started like so:

/usr/lib/postgresql/9.2/bin/postgres -D /var/lib/postgresql/9.2/main -c
config_file=/etc/postgresql/9.2/main/postgresql.conf

With the proposed include line for auto.conf, which lives in $PGDATA,
we'd have:

include 'auto.conf'

Would we then have

includedir 'conf.d'

which is relative to postgresql.conf instead?
Thanks,
    Stephen