Re: Permanent settings

Dimitri Fontaine wrote:
> Le mercredi 20 février 2008, Magnus Hagander a écrit :
>   
>>> What about having a postgresql.conf.d directory containing a file per
>>> setting, maybe with a subdir per section. If I take Josh Berkus example,
>>> we'd have
>>>       
>> <snip>
>> IMHO, if we do that it really sucks for those who use manual configuration
>> files, to the point of being completely unusable. It could be valid if we
>> want to support config only through the API, but that's not what people are
>> asking for.
>>
>> We need something that's low-impact for existing users, and this certainly
>> isn't.
>>     
>
> What about having PG still able to load postgresql.conf or the tree of config 
> files, automatically, erroring when both mechanisms are in use at the same 
> time. This would allow for manual config editing installations and SQL 
> embedded configuration setting, just not in the same cluster at the same 
> time.
>
> I see how the proposal fails to answer to people wanting to edit the same 
> configuration both with a file editor and SQL commands, but maybe having 
> either postgresql.conf or SQL interface for configuration could be a first 
> step?
>
>   

No. Seriously. We need to have reasonable manual editability preserved 
for all cases. The tree of files proposal just strikes me as a basic 
non-starter, and, frankly, a piece of bad design. If you need structure, 
then using the file system to provider it is just a bad move.

All this discussion seems to me to be going off into the clouds, where 
every objection is met with some still more elaborate scheme. I think we 
need to look at simple, incremental, and if possible backwards 
compatible changes.

cheers

andrew