Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2023 14:36:14 -0400
From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
To: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Cc: "Jonathan S. Katz" <jkatz@postgresql.org>,
	"David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com>, splarv@ya.ru,
	pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org
Subject: Re: 'value' has special behaviour in alter system
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On Tue, Oct 24, 2023 at 02:05:53PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> writes:
> > I have developed the attached patch to document this.
> 
> This seems a little imprecise:
> 
> +      Values with non-alphanumeric characters must be quoted.
> 
> I think accurate is more like "Values that are neither a number
> nor a valid identifier must be quoted."
> 
> Also, that para already mentions that the input can be a
> comma-separated list when appropriate, so your add-on para seems
> partially repetitive.  I think you could just drop the first
> sentence of it.

Agreed, updated patch attached.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        https://momjian.us
  EDB                                      https://enterprisedb.com

  Only you can decide what is important to you.

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diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/ref/alter_system.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/ref/alter_system.sgml
index 6f8bd39eaf..bea5714ba1 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/ref/alter_system.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/ref/alter_system.sgml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ PostgreSQL documentation
 
  <refsynopsisdiv>
 <synopsis>
-ALTER SYSTEM SET <replaceable class="parameter">configuration_parameter</replaceable> { TO | = } { <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> | '<replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable>' | DEFAULT }
+ALTER SYSTEM SET <replaceable class="parameter">configuration_parameter</replaceable> { TO | = } { <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> [, ...] | DEFAULT }
 
 ALTER SYSTEM RESET <replaceable class="parameter">configuration_parameter</replaceable>
 ALTER SYSTEM RESET ALL
@@ -83,9 +83,17 @@ ALTER SYSTEM RESET ALL
       New value of the parameter.  Values can be specified as string
       constants, identifiers, numbers, or comma-separated lists of
       these, as appropriate for the particular parameter.
+      Values that are neither numbers nor valid identifiers must be quoted.
       <literal>DEFAULT</literal> can be written to specify removing the
       parameter and its value from <filename>postgresql.auto.conf</filename>.
      </para>
+
+     <para>
+      For some list-accepting parameters, quoted values will produce
+      double-quoted output to preserve whitespace and commas; for others,
+      double-quotes must be used inside single-quoted strings to get
+      this effect.
+     </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
   </variablelist>

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