Re: A smaller default postgresql.conf

Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>

From: "Robert Haas" <robertmhaas@gmail.com>
To: "Tom Lane" <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Cc: "Joshua Drake" <jd@commandprompt.com>, "Magnus Hagander" <magnus@hagander.net>, "Alvaro Herrera" <alvherre@commandprompt.com>, "Hans-Juergen Schoenig" <postgres@cybertec.at>, "Peter Eisentraut" <peter_e@gmx.net>, pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
Date: 2008-08-19T19:39:58Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
> I'm really not in favor of having comments in the conf file that try to
> tell you about stuff you might want to set, much less why.  That task
> properly belongs to some kind of introductory chapter in the SGML docs.
> Novice DBAs are unlikely even to *find* the config file, let alone look
> inside it, if there's not an introductory chapter telling them about
> Things They Ought To Do.

+1.  When I have a question about something PostgreSQL-related, the
first think I do is Read The Fine Manual.  The PostgreSQL
documentation is excellent, and one of the highlights of the project
IMO.

I've read through the postgresql.conf file occasionally, but that's a
really difficult way to try to understand the subject.  I'd much
rather read through that file in a web browser than a shell window -
but the real advantage of putting it in the documentation is that you
can not only document each specific setting, but also give a broad
overview of relevant topics.  A section on "Performance Tuning" in
"Section III: Server Administration" would be really great.

...Robert