Re: postgresql.conf.sample tab width

Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Nathan Bossart <nathandbossart@gmail.com>
Cc: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
Date: 2025-11-14T20:25:15Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
Nathan Bossart <nathandbossart@gmail.com> writes:
> I noticed that GitHub is using 4-space tabs for this file [0], presumably
> due to this [1] recent change.  I'm not aware of an official policy for
> this file, but it seems to be written for 8-space tabs.

> One way to fix this is to set our default tab width to 8 in
> .gitattributes/.editorconfig (see attached patch).  AFAICT that doesn't
> affect source code files.  We could also add a special rule for
> postgresql.conf.sample, or we could even convert it to 4-space tabs.  Any
> druthers?

We've been around on this topic before.  It's hard for us to deal with
8-space tabs within our repo, but we should expect that users who are
editing their postgresql.conf files are probably going to be using
8-space tabs.

I seem to recall a proposal that the best fix is to not use tabs
at all in postgresql.conf.sample.  That seems like a good way out
to me.  I think we could fix .gitattributes so that "git diff --check"
would verify no tabs, but I've not looked into details.

			regards, tom lane



Commits

  1. Check for tabs in postgresql.conf.sample.

  2. Switch from tabs to spaces in postgresql.conf.sample.

  3. Update .editorconfig and .gitattributes for postgresql.conf.sample.