Re: Renaming of pg_xlog and pg_clog

On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 12:29:47PM -0400, Robert Haas wrote:
> > When it comes to the name, I tend to think of 'pg_xact' as saying "this
> > is where we persist info we need to keep about transactions."  Today
> > that's just the commit status info, but I could imagine that there
> > might, someday, be other things that go in there.  "pg_multixact" is
> > an example of something quite similar but does have more than just one
> > "thing."  Also, using "pg_xact" and then "pg_subxact" and "pg_multixact"
> > bring them all under one consistent naming scheme.
> 
> I don't dispute the fact that you tend to think of it that way, but I
> think it's a real stretch to say that "pg_xact" is a clear name from
> the point of view of the uninitiated.  Now, maybe the point is to be a
> little bit deliberately unclear, but "xact" for "transaction" is not a
> lot better than "xlog" for "write-ahead log".  It's just arbitrary
> abbreviations we made up and you either know what they mean or you
> don't.  We could call it "pg_xkcd" and we wouldn't be removing much in
> the way of clarity.

What is your suggestion for a name?  If you have none, I suggest we use
"pg_xact".

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

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