* Tom Lane (t...@sss.pgh.pa.us) wrote: > Andrew Dunstan <and...@dunslane.net> writes: > > I don't know if this was discussed at the time ALTER SYSTEM was > > implemented, but I have just discovered that if postgresql.auto.conf is > > a symlink to a file elsewhere, ALTER SYSTEM will happily break that link > > and write its own local copy. That strikes me as rather unfriendly. Why > > not just truncate the file rather than unlink it as it's being > > rewritten? Even if we don't want to do that a warning in the docs might > > help users avoid the "mistake" I just made. > > Frankly, that behavior strikes me as a good idea. There is no situation, > IMV, where it's sane to try to put a symlink there.
I tend to agree with this. Where a symlink makes sense for us are cases where the configuration information is intentionally stored in the correct directory structure (eg: /etc on Debian/Ubuntu and systems which follow the FHS), and intended to be user-modifyable. That's not the case with ALTER SYSTEM. What this request strikes me as asking for is the same as what I asked for when this feature was originally going in- there should be a way to disable it. Allowing changes through ALTER SYSTEM which can result in the system not being able to start is dangerous and confusing to many. Thanks! Stephen
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature
