On Wed, May 8, 2024 at 10:34 AM Nazir Bilal Yavuz <byavuz81@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'm not so sure about the GUC name. On the one hand, it feels like
> > createdb should be spelled out as create_database, but on the other
> > hand, the GUC name is quite long already. Then again, why would we
> > make this specific to CREATE DATABASE in the first place? Would we
> > also want alter_tablespace_file_copy_method and
> > basic_archive.file_copy_method?
>
> I agree that it is already quite long, because of that I chose the
> createdb as a prefix. I did not think that file cloning was planned to
> be used in other places. If that is the case, does something like
> 'preferred_copy_method' work? Then, we would mention which places will
> be affected with this GUC in the docs.
I would go with file_copy_method rather than preferred_copy_method,
because (1) there's nothing "preferred" about it if we're using it
unconditionally and (2) it's nice to clarify that we're talking about
copying files rather than anything else.
My personal enthusiasm for making platform-specific file copy methods
usable all over PostgreSQL is quite limited. However, it is my
observation that other people seem far more enthusiastic about it than
I am. For example, consider how quickly it got added to
pg_combinebackup. So, I suspect it's smart to plan on anything we add
in this area getting used in a bunch of places. And perhaps it is even
best to think about making it work in all of those places right from
the start. If we build support into copydir and copy_file, then we
just get everything that uses those, and all that remains is to
document was is covered (and add comments so that future patch authors
know they should further update the documentation).
--
Robert Haas
EDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
