From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: "David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com>
cc: Ron <ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com>,
        Pgsql-admin <pgsql-admin@lists.postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: How to _not_ save startup options in postmaster.opts?
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Comments: In-reply-to "David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com>
	message dated "Thu, 02 Nov 2023 10:24:00 -0700"
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Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2023 13:42:37 -0400
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"David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com> writes:
>> Alas, those config values are remembered in postmaster.opts.  But I don=
't
>> want that.

> I don=E2=80=99t know where this file is even documented ATM but my under=
standing is
> it just shows you the values used during the last startup.

It does more, per the pg_ctl man page:

    postmaster.opts

        If this file exists in the data directory, pg_ctl (in restart
        mode) will pass the contents of the file as options to postgres,
        unless overridden by the -o option. The contents of this file are
        also displayed in status mode.

It seems totally reasonable for "pg_ctl restart" to re-apply those
switches.  If you don't want that, don't use "restart", but stop
and start.

Or you could just remove the file.

			regards, tom lane