Cc: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org,
 Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>
Message-Id: <39CAD718-B770-4F80-92AC-647B0778DB1B@kineticode.com>
From: "David E. Wheeler" <david@kineticode.com>
To: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>
In-Reply-To: <200806010032.53337.peter_e@gmx.net>
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Subject: Re: Overhauling GUCS
Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 15:38:40 -0700
References: <48409D1E.3070208@agliodbs.com>
	<200806010032.53337.peter_e@gmx.net>

On May 31, 2008, at 15:32, Peter Eisentraut wrote:

>> 1. Most people have no idea how to set these.
>
> Could you clarify this?  I can't really believe that people are  
> incapable of
> editing a configuration file.

I've been using PostgreSQL on and off, mostly on, for almost 10 years.  
I still have no idea what 75% of those settings in postgresql.conf  
mean or are for. There are an overwhelming number of them. I know that  
5-8 of them I always touch, thanks largely to assistance now and then  
from Josh Berkus, but the rest are just complexity to me. I don't  
doubt that the vast majority of them are useful in one situation or  
another, but unless I'm in one of those situations, I really don't  
need to see them there and be confused by them.

Does that help?

>> 2. The current postgresql.conf file is a huge mess of 194 options,  
>> the
>> vast majority of which most users will never touch.
>
> My opinion has always been that we should provide a default file  
> with only the
> essential options instead of all of them.  I see this as a the major  
> problem,
> because people are overwhelmed and consequently don't set anything.

+1

Best,

David