pg.ddx.io  pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org mailing list archive  
help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
Cc: Stephen Frost <sfrost@snowman.net>
Cc: Amit Kapila <amit.kapila16@gmail.com>
Cc: Ian Barwick <ian.barwick@2ndquadrant.com>
Cc: Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>
Cc: Tomas Vondra <tomas.vondra@2ndquadrant.com>
Cc: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Stop ALTER SYSTEM from making bad assumptions
Date: Fri, 02 Aug 2019 19:05:24 -0400
Message-ID: <1123.1564787124@sss.pgh.pa.us> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20190802225640.gm7bhwkgctzje4su@alap3.anarazel.de>
References: <CA+TgmoZVx-vco-39EN9MxO9BaG-oVY+NuDeZPGdS=_bX5VH70w@mail.gmail.com>
	<20190624185647.GW2480@tamriel.snowman.net>
	<15032.1561403529@sss.pgh.pa.us>
	<20190624192014.GB2480@tamriel.snowman.net>
	<56aff4f3-dec8-f462-7feb-0938411b04a6@2ndquadrant.com>
	<CAA4eK1+JMm=tvx720y6jhD8pdzt=HdS1-TwQwkARib2pwK8EvQ@mail.gmail.com>
	<20190802222254.qsvqjtkwte464lu3@development>
	<31697.1564784856@sss.pgh.pa.us>
	<CAOuzzgqNyQM_z0biEEBVBK9WcaLmbCyWrd5xTdf-Oxb_9pntLA@mail.gmail.com>
	<32681.1564786027@sss.pgh.pa.us>
	<20190802225640.gm7bhwkgctzje4su@alap3.anarazel.de>

Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de> writes:
> On 2019-08-02 18:47:07 -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
>> I don't find that to be necessary or even desirable.  Many (most?) of the
>> situations where this would be important wouldn't have access to a running
>> backend, and maybe not to any PG code at all --- what if your tool isn't
>> written in C?

> I think a commandline tool to perform the equivalent of ALTER SYSTEM on
> a shutdown cluster would be a great tool.

Perhaps, but ...

> Obviously this is widely out of scope for v12.

... this.  It's entirely insane to think we're going to produce any such
thing for v12 (much less back-patch it into prior versions).  In the short
term I don't think there's any workable alternative except to decree that
"just append to the end" is a supported way to alter pg.auto.conf.

But, as you said, it's also not sane for ALTER SYSTEM to behave that way,
because it won't cope for long with repetitive modifications.  I think
we can get away with the "just append" recommendation for most external
drivers because they won't be doing that.  If they are, they'll need to
be smarter, and maybe some command-line tool would make their lives
simpler down the line.  But we aren't providing that in this cycle.

			regards, tom lane





view thread (117+ messages)  latest in thread

Message-ID: <1123.1564787124@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Permalink:  ../1123.1564787124@sss.pgh.pa.us/
Also on:    postgresql.org/message-id/1123.1564787124@sss.pgh.pa.us

 · 

reply

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Reply to all the recipients using the --to and --cc options:
  reply via email

  To: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
  Cc: tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us, andres@anarazel.de, sfrost@snowman.net, amit.kapila16@gmail.com, ian.barwick@2ndquadrant.com, robertmhaas@gmail.com, tomas.vondra@2ndquadrant.com
  Subject: Re: [PATCH] Stop ALTER SYSTEM from making bad assumptions
  In-Reply-To: <1123.1564787124@sss.pgh.pa.us>

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

This inbox is served by DDX for PostgreSQL; see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox