Re: Open items - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

On Fri, 6 Aug 2004, Bruce Momjian wrote:

>
> If you change shared_buffers to 2000, remove the comment and reload, the
> variable is now 2000.  If you comment out the variable and reload again,
> it is still 2000, not the default.

Oh, weird ... and that isn't considered a bug?  Definitely wouldn't be the 
behaviour I would have expected of any other server/daemon process ... now 
I can see where the confusion is arising :(

> Marc G. Fournier wrote:
>> On Fri, 6 Aug 2004, Bruce Momjian wrote:
>>
>>> Marc G. Fournier wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hrmmm, stupid question here, but why not just change hte postgresql.conf
>>>> to be those variables that *are* changed from the default, with a simple
>>>> comment pointing to the documention for the rest?  the benefit of that is
>>>> that at lesat the documentation has fuller descriptions of what the
>>>> variables are for ...
>>>>
>>>> *that* could be easily done after beta ...
>>>
>>> Not sure why removing the comments is seen as good myself, but I think
>>> the idea was that if you comment out something and change the default,
>>> you assume that commenting it out returns it to the default, though it
>>> does not.
>>
>> 'k, now you've totally confused me ... if you comment something out, and
>> it doesn't return to the default, where does it go to?
>>
>> my understanding was that the 'beef' was that the defaults that are
>> displayed on each of the variables in postgresql.conf file don't
>> necessarily match the defaults compiled into the backend ... which, I
>> *think* is what you meant in the above? :)
>>
>> Right now, if you install postgresql, there are various variables
>> added/set in the postgresql.conf file (notably the stuff that Tom did with
>> the shared memory buffer) ... with the rest being "what could be the
>> default, but may not be" for the commented out variables ... my suggestion
>> is to remove the commented out variables altogether, and change the file
>> to something like:
>>
>> #
>> # for a complete list of GUC variables, see ...
>> #
>> <put 'live/set' variables here>
>>
>>
>> ----
>> Marc G. Fournier           Hub.Org Networking Services (http://www.hub.org)
>> Email: scrappy@hub.org           Yahoo!: yscrappy              ICQ: 7615664
>>
>
> --
>  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
>  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
>  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
>  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073
>

----
Marc G. Fournier           Hub.Org Networking Services (http://www.hub.org)
Email: scrappy@hub.org           Yahoo!: yscrappy              ICQ: 7615664