Re: pg_config, pg_service.conf, postgresql.conf .... - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

Mark Woodward wrote:
>>Mark Woodward wrote:
>>
>>>>After takin a swig o' Arrakan spice grog, pgsql@mohawksoft.com ("Mark
>>>>Woodward") belched out:
>>
>>>>I'm not keen on the Windows .ini file style sectioning; that makes it
>>>>look like a mix between a shell script and something else.  It should
>>>>be one or the other.  It probably should be directly executable by
>>>>something...
>>>
>>>
>>>Hmm, while I agree that "ini" file is kind of ugly, it is fairly common
>>>in
>>>the industry, human readable, and does what it needed.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>You could follow the UNIX style for such files e.g. /etc/hosts,
>>/etc/services (and also pg_hba.conf).
> 
> The /etc/hosts file does not allow a hierarchical representation of a
> group that contains zero or more name/value pairs.
> 

Do you need name, value pairs? I was thinking that something like:

# Postgres Cluster Registration
#
# PG_HOME PGDATA PORT
/usr/local/pg7.4.1   /vol01/pggeo      5435
/usr/local/pg7.4.1   /vol01/pgicdmdb   5434
/usr/local/pg7.4.1   /vol03/pg74       5432


Clearly other fields are possible (like ALIAS for the names you were 
using, and OPTS for extra arguments).

This sort of layout is easily readable (more easily readable for those 
of us used to standard UNIX config files) and simply parsable too.

Cheers

M