Postgres and --config-file option
Aleksander Alekseev <aleksander@timescale.com>
From: Aleksander Alekseev <aleksander@timescale.com>
To: PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org>
Date: 2024-01-13T10:39:50Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
Hi, A friend of mine complained about strange behavior of `postgres`. When executed without any arguments the following error is shown: ``` $ postgres postgres does not know where to find the server configuration file. You must specify the --config-file or -D invocation option or set the PGDATA environment variable. ``` However --config-file is not listed in --help output. Apparently that's because it's not a regular option but a GUС. It is in fact supported: ``` $ postgres --config-file=/tmp/fake.txt postgres: could not access the server configuration file "/tmp/fake.txt": No such file or directory ``` Additionally --help says: ``` [...] Please read the documentation for the complete list of run-time configuration settings and how to set them on the command line or in the configuration file ``` ... which personally I don't find extremely useful to be honest. OK, let's check section "20.1.4. Parameter Interaction via the Shell" [1] of the documentation. Currently it doesn't tell anything about the ability to specify GUCs --like-this, unless I missed something. Should we remove --config-file from the error message to avoid any confusion? Should we correct --help output? Should we update the documentation? [1]: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/config-setting.html#CONFIG-SETTING-SHELL -- Best regards, Aleksander Alekseev
Commits
-
doc: Mention more variant --name=value of -c name=value for postgres
- f01e3ba56fd1 17.0 landed