Re: Consistent \d commands in psql

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On 02/04/2008, Tom Lane  wrote:
> David Fetter  writes:
>  > When we have a bad default--and I'd argue that for anyone not
>  > developing PostgreSQL itself, showing system functions is a bad
>  > default--we should change it to something sane.
>
> I disagree with your parenthetical argument here, mainly on the strength
>  of Greg's point about how that might hide the existence of conflicts.
>  But in any case the discussion here is first about what set of behaviors
>  we need to provide, and only second about which one should be default.
>

If I read Greg's latter proposal correctly, he was suggesting

\df Lists all user functions
\df [pattern] Lists both system and user functions matching [pattern]
\df * Lists all system and user functions

This doesn't provide is "all system functions only", but:

  1. That list is way too long to be of much use in a psql context
  2. You can still do a \df pg_catalog.* if you're really that keen.

It also doesn't provide "only user functions matching [pattern]", but
is that really a problem?  I suppose you could conceive of a situation
where somebody is looking for all the user funcs matching "int*" and
getting annoyed by having to scroll past ~200 system funcs, but you
can always refine your pattern, or clamp it to a particular schema.

Regards,
BJ
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