> Another option could be to just remove the restart-only GUC and hard-code
> the upper limit of autovacuum_max_workers to 64 or 128 or something. While
> that would simplify matters, I suspect it would be hard to choose an
> appropriate limit that won't quickly become outdated.
Hardcoded values are usually hard to deal with because they are hidden either
In code or in docs.
> When I thought about this, I considered proposing to add a new GUC for
> "autovacuum_policy_workers".
> autovacuum_max_workers would be the same as before, requiring a restart
> to change. The policy GUC would be the soft limit, changable at runtime
I think autovacuum_max_workers should still be the GUC that controls
the number of concurrent autovacuums. This parameter is already well
established and changing the meaning now will be confusing.
I suspect most users will be glad it's now dynamic, but will probably
be annoyed if it's no longer doing what it's supposed to.
Regards,
Sami