Received: from malur.postgresql.org ([217.196.149.56]) by arkaria.postgresql.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:256) (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1hZFlj-0003tm-DR for pgsql-docs@arkaria.postgresql.org; Fri, 07 Jun 2019 14:22:59 +0000 Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=malur.postgresql.org) by malur.postgresql.org with esmtp (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1hZFli-0000k7-7h for pgsql-docs@arkaria.postgresql.org; Fri, 07 Jun 2019 14:22:58 +0000 Received: from makus.postgresql.org ([2001:4800:3e1:1::229]) by malur.postgresql.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:256) (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1hZFlh-0000fz-T7 for pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org; Fri, 07 Jun 2019 14:22:58 +0000 Received: from sss.pgh.pa.us ([66.207.139.130]) by makus.postgresql.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:256) (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1hZFlb-0001Xx-Ck for pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org; Fri, 07 Jun 2019 14:22:56 +0000 Received: from pro.sss.pgh.pa.us (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sss.pgh.pa.us (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id x57EMnGD031726 for ; Fri, 7 Jun 2019 10:22:49 -0400 From: Tom Lane To: pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org Subject: Can we bring some organization to the configure options list? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-ID: <6383.1559917369.1@sss.pgh.pa.us> Date: Fri, 07 Jun 2019 10:22:49 -0400 Message-ID: <6384.1559917369@sss.pgh.pa.us> List-Id: List-Help: List-Subscribe: List-Post: List-Owner: List-Archive: Precedence: bulk I was just noticing, while answering a user question, the amount of unorganized urban sprawl we've accumulated in https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/install-procedure.html We've got practically-essential options like --prefix and --with-openssl intermixed with obscure portability flags and options that only developers should take any interest in. For bonus points, the ordering seems chosen largely by dartboard; there's certainly no visible plan to it. I think we should try to improve the situation by dividing the configure options into categories and/or separating commonly used options from obscure ones. I don't have any concrete proposal to make right now, but I am hoping to kick off a discussion about what such an organization would look like. regards, tom lane