From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
Message-Id: <201103111603.p2BG3PJ01892@momjian.us>
Subject: Re: explaining "context" column of pg_settings
In-Reply-To: <17754.1292544709@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 11:03:25 -0500 (EST)
CC: Josh Kupershmidt <schmiddy@gmail.com>,
	pgsql-docs <pgsql-docs@postgresql.org>
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I am unclear where to put this as well so I suggest we just put it in
catalogs.sgml and be done with it.

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Tom Lane wrote:
> Josh Kupershmidt <schmiddy@gmail.com> writes:
> > The six different kinds of contexts in the pg_settings system view
> > aren't terribly well documented. The current doc page says only:
> > "Context required to set the parameter's value". A search through the
> > archives turned up only a brief explanation[1] of what "postmaster"
> > means for this setting. The recent book "PostgreSQL 9.0 High
> > Performance"[2] complains "The context field isn't documented very
> > well in the official manual."
> 
> > I've put together a patch to help document these values based on the
> > comments in guc.h, the explanations in [2], and my own understanding.
> > My crude explanations could probably use some further wordsmithing and
> > check for accuracy :-)
> 
> I did some work on this patch and attach an updated version.  I'm not
> however convinced that it's a good idea to bury this material in
> catalogs.sgml --- I think few people ever read that chapter.  Shouldn't
> we put this into config.sgml instead, somewhere in section 18.1?
> 
> > I avoided just copy-pasting from guc.h, particulary because some of
> > the explanations struck me as confusing or incorrect.
> 
> Well, your replacement explanations seemed even less correct ;-).
> Also, I think what the text needs to emphasize is *how* to change
> each setting type, so that prompted some of my editing.
> 
> 			regards, tom lane
> 

Content-Description: guc-context-docs-2.patch


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-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com

  + It's impossible for everything to be true. +