Re: PostgreSQL configuration

Tom Lane wrote:
> I've recently had some very unpleasant experiences trying to install
> test versions of MySQL on machines that already had older versions
> installed normally.  It seems that MySQL *will* read /etc/my.cnf if it
> exists, whether it's appropriate or not, and so it's impossible to have
> a truly independent test installation, even though you can configure it
> to build/install into nonstandard directories.  Let's not emulate that
> bit of brain damage.
> 
>             regards, tom lane

It seems to me that this is a packaging problem and not a postgresql 
problem.  If someone wants to package PostgreSQL so that there's a 
symlink to a config file in /etc/pgsql or vice versa for the main 
database they're welcome to do that, and why not?  As for test 
databases, there's already a -D for the datadir, why not add a -C for 
the config file as many software packages allow.  Then packagers could 
put the config file anywhere they wanted.  I would certainly welcome 
this feature as it would allow for easy tweaking/benchmarking.

I agree that we should avoid the viral-like MySQL configuration plague.

As to pgsql AT mohawksoft.com requested, here are a few widely used 
software packages that keep configuration close to the data, some in 
/var, some in /usr:

Mailman
OpenSSL
Cyrus-IMAP
Apache I believe doesn't install anything to /etc/ when you build from 
source.