On Wed, 4 Jun 2008, Andreas Pflug wrote:
When reading this thread, I'm wondering if anybody ever saw a config file for a complex software product that was easily editable and understandable.
I would recommend Apache's httpd.conf as an example of something that's easy to edit and follow. Like any complex product, the comments in the configuration file itself can't possibly be sufficient by themselves. But in general I've found Apache's config file to have enough comments to jog my memory when I'm editing it while not being overwhelming. They provide enough detail that when I run into a setting I don't understand there's enough context provided that it's easy to search for more information.
Poking around with Google for a bit, here's a reasonable sample: http://webdav.org/goliath/dav_on_x/apache.conf
IMHO the best compromise in machine and human readability is an XML format.
If the primary PostgreSQL configuration file becomes XML I will quit working with the project. I'm not kidding. If you think XML is easy to generate, edit by hand, and use revision control on, we are at such an fundamental disagreement that I wouldn't even try and directly argue with you. Instead I'll quote Eric Raymond:
"The most serious problem with XML is that it doesn't play well with traditional Unix tools. Software that wants to read an XML format needs an XML parser; this means bulky, complicated programs." http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch05s02.html#id2907018
Let me suggest the following requirement instead which naturally rules it out: it should be possible for a DBA-level coder to write a simple shell script that does something useful with the configuration file in order for having a text-based configuration to be useful in this context. To give a simple example, I can write a single line [sed|awk|perl] command that will let me update the value for one parameter in the current postgresql.conf file. When you can give me a one-liner that does that on an XML file in any shell language in that class, then we might have something to talk about.
-- * Greg Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.gregsmith.com Baltimore, MD -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
