Re: Why not install pgstattuple by default?

On 05/09/2011 03:31 PM, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> For executables we already have src/bin. Do we really need a separate
> place for, say, pg_standby or pg_upgrade?
>    

There's really no executables in contrib that I find myself regularly 
desperate for/angry at because they're not installed as an integral part 
of the server, the way I regularly find myself cursing some things that 
are now extensions.  The only contrib executable I use often is pgbench, 
and that's normally early in server life--when it's still possible to 
get things installed easily most places.  And it's something that can be 
removed when finished, in cases where people are nervous about the 
contrib package.

Situations where pg_standby or pg_upgrade suddenly pop up as emergency 
needs seem unlikely too, which is also the case with oid2name, 
pg_test_fsync, pg_archivecleanup, and vacuumlo.  I've had that happen 
with pg_archivecleanup exactly once since it appeared--running out of 
space and that was the easiest way to make the problem go away 
immediately and permanently--but since it was on an 8.4 server we had to 
download the source and build anyway.

Also, my experience is that people are not that paranoid about running 
external binaries, even though they could potentially do harm to the 
database.  Can always do a backup beforehand.  But the idea of loading a 
piece of code that lives in the server all the time freaks them out.  
The way the word contrib implies (and sometimes is meant to mean) low 
quality, while stuff that ships with the main server package does not, 
has been beaten up here for years already.  It's only a few cases where 
that's not fully justified, and the program can easily become an 
extension, that I feel are really worth changing here.  There are 49 
directories in contrib/ ; at best maybe 20% of them will ever fall into 
that category.

-- 
Greg Smith   2ndQuadrant US    greg@2ndQuadrant.com   Baltimore, MD
PostgreSQL Training, Services, and 24x7 Support  www.2ndQuadrant.us