Re: PGXLOG variable worthwhile? - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

Jan Wieck wrote:
> Tom Lane wrote:
> > 
> > "Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy@hub.org> writes:
> > > You don't :vote: on stuff like this ...
> > 
> > Why not, exactly?
> > 
> > I wasn't aware that any of core had a non-vetoable right to apply
> > any patch we liked regardless of the number and strength of the
> > objections.  AFAIK, we resolve differences of opinion by discussion,
> > followed by a vote if the discussion doesn't produce a consensus.
> > 
> > It was pretty clear that Thomas' original patch lost the vote, or
> > would have lost if we'd bothered to hold a formal vote.  I don't
> > see anyone arguing against the notion of making XLOG location more
> > easily configurable --- it was just the notion of making it depend
> > on environment variables that scared people.
> 
> And AFAICS it is scary only because screwing that up will simply corrupt
> your database. Thus, a simple random number (okay, and a timestamp of
> initdb) in two files, one in $PGDATA and one in $PGXLOG would be a
> totally sufficient safety mechanism to prevent starting with the wrong
> XLOG directory.
> 
> Can we get that instead of ripping out anything?

Well, the problem is that Thomas stopped communicating, perhaps because
some were too aggressive in criticizing the patch.  Once that happened,
there was no way to come up with a solution, and that's why it was
removed.

Also, we are in the process of removing args and moving them to GUC so I
don't see why we would make WAL an exception.  It isn't changed that
often.

FYI, I am about to do the same removal for the SSL stuff too.  Bear is
no longer responding.  It is on the open items list now.  If I can't
find someone who can review the good/bad parts of our SSL changes, it
might all be yanked out.

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Current at ftp://momjian.postgresql.org/pub/postgresql/open_items.

Source Code Changes
-------------------
Schema handling - ready? interfaces? client apps?
Drop column handling - ready for all clients, apps?
Fix BeOS, QNX4 ports
Fix AIX large file compile failure of 2002-09-11 (Andreas)
Get bison upgrade on postgresql.org for ecpg only (Marc)
Fix vacuum btree bug (Tom)
Fix client apps for autocommit = off
Fix clusterdb to be schema-aware
Change log_min_error_statement to be off by default (Gavin)
Fix return tuple counts/oid/tag for rules
Loading 7.2 pg_dumpsfunctions no longer public executablelanguages no longer public usable
Add schema dump option to pg_dump
Make SET not start a transaction with autocommit off, document it
Add GRANT EXECUTE to all /contrib functions
Revert or fix SSL change

On Going
--------
Security audit

Documentation Changes
---------------------
Document need to add permissions to loaded functions and languages
Move documation to gborg for moved projects


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