Re: [HACKERS] RFC: ALTER SYSTEM [...] COMMENT

On 26 April 2017 at 18:03, Joshua D. Drake <jd@commandprompt.com> wrote:
> -hackers,
>
> We have had ALTER SYSTEM for some time now. It is awesome to be able to make
> changes that can be system wide without ever having to hit a shell but it
> does lack a feature that seems like an oversight, the ability to comment.
>
> Problem we are trying to solve:
>
> Having documentation for changes to GUC parameters that are modified via
> ALTER SYSTEM.
>
> Why?
>
> Because documentation is good and required for a proper production system.
>
> How?
>
> I propose:
>
> Add a column to pg_settings comment(text)
> Change the grammar to allow:
>
> ALTER SYSTEM SET configuration_parameter { TO | = } { value | 'value' |
> DEFAULT } COMMENT 'comment'
>
> Example:
>
> ALTER SYSTEM SET maintenance_work_mem TO '1GB' COMMENT IS 'Increased to
> allow autovacuum to be more efficient';
>
> Potential issues:
>
> Does not use existing comment functionality. Alternate solution which would
> decrease functionality is:
>
> COMMENT ON SETTING setting IS 'comment';
>
> Looking forward, we may want to do the following:
>
> 1. Make it so any object can have a comment with creation, e.g;
>
> CREATE TABLE table () COMMENT IS '';
>
> 2. Make it so comments are appended not replaced.

Yeah, this is something I've also suggested previously:

https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CAA-aLv50MZdjdVk_=Tep6na94dNmi1Y9XkCp3er7FQqvX=DagQ@mail.gmail.com

Thom