Re: PostgreSQL pollutes the file system

On Wed, Mar 27, 2019 at 02:31:14PM +0100, Fred .Flintstone wrote:
>Many of these are gone in the modern PostgreSQL, a few remain.
>https://packages.ubuntu.com/disco/amd64/postgresql-client-11/filelist
>
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/clusterdb
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/createdb
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/createuser
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/dropdb
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/dropuser
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/pg_basebackup
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/pg_dump
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/pg_dumpall
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/pg_isready
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/pg_receivewal
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/pg_recvlogical
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/pg_restore
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/psql
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/reindexdb
>/usr/lib/postgresql/11/bin/vacuumdb
>
>Can we rename clusterdb, reindexdb and vacuumdb to carry the pg_ prefix?
>

I think the consensus in this thread (and the previous ancient ones) is
that it's not worth it. It's one thing to introduce new commands with the
pg_ prefix, and it's a completely different thing to rename existing ones.
That has inherent costs, and as Tom pointed out the burden would fall on
people using PostgreSQL (and that's rather undesirable).

I personally don't see why having commands without pg_ prefix would be
an issue. Especially when placed in a separate directory, which eliminates
the possibility of conflict with other commands.

regards

--
Tomas Vondra                  http://www.2ndQuadrant.com
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services