Re: REVIEW proposal: a validator for configuration files

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

From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Andy Colson <andy@squeakycode.net>
Cc: Alexey Klyukin <alexk@commandprompt.com>, Pg Hackers <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Date: 2011-09-07T14:00:34Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
Andy Colson <andy@squeakycode.net> writes:
> Where did the other warnings go?  Its right though, line 570 is bad.  It also seems to have killed the server.  I have not gotten through the history of messages regarding this patch, but is it supposed to kill the server if there is a syntax error in the config file?

The historical behavior is that a configuration file error detected
during postmaster startup should prevent the server from starting, but
an error detected during reload should only result in a LOG message and
the reload not occurring.  I don't believe anyone will accept a patch
that causes the server to quit on a failed reload.  There has however
been some debate about the exact extent of ignoring bad values during
reload --- currently the theory is "ignore the whole file if anything is
wrong", but there's some support for applying all non-bad values as long
as the overall file syntax is okay.

			regards, tom lane