From: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>
To: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Overhauling GUCS
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 14:35:00 +0200
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Cc: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>, Greg Smith <gsmith@gregsmith.com>,
	Andreas Pflug <pgadmin@pse-consulting.de>, Decibel! <decibel@decibel.org>,
	Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>
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	<Pine.GSO.4.64.0806041045520.2258@westnet.com>
	<29525.1212613052@sss.pgh.pa.us>
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Am Mittwoch, 4. Juni 2008 schrieb Tom Lane:
> * Can we present the config options in a more helpful way (this is 99%
> a documentation problem, not a code problem)?

ack

> * Can we build a "configuration wizard" to tell newbies what settings
> they need to tweak?

Some questions to clarify this:

- What settings do "newbies" (or anyone else) typically need to change?  
Please post a list.

- What values would you set those settings to?  Please provide a description 
for arriving at a value, which can later be transformed into code.  Note that 
in some cases, not even the documentation provides more than handwaving help.

- If we know better values, why don't we set them by default?

Another orthogonal stumbling block on the way to making all of this automatic 
is that the surely criticial shared_buffers setting will in any useful 
configuration require messing around with kernel settings that no PostgreSQL 
tool can really help with.