Thread: Units in postgresql.conf -- How to report?

So assuming we allowed units in postgresql.conf, how would you report 
them with SHOW?

1. The way they were set (hard)

2. Without units (not user-friendly)

3. Always in base units (seconds or bytes)

4. The largest unit that gives an integer

(4) seems the most reasonable to me in terms of interface and 
implementation.

-- 
Peter Eisentraut
http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/

On Mon, Jul 24, 2006 at 11:13:53PM +0200, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> So assuming we allowed units in postgresql.conf, how would you report 
> them with SHOW?
> 
> 1. The way they were set (hard)
> 
> 2. Without units (not user-friendly)
> 
> 3. Always in base units (seconds or bytes)
> 
> 4. The largest unit that gives an integer
> 
> (4) seems the most reasonable to me in terms of interface and 
> implementation.

I'm for (4), as it's also what people are used to from things like
GNU's -h option.

Cheers,
D
-- 
David Fetter <david@fetter.org> http://fetter.org/
phone: +1 415 235 3778        AIM: dfetter666                             Skype: davidfetter

Remember to vote!

Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> So assuming we allowed units in postgresql.conf, how would you report
> them with SHOW?
>
> 1. The way they were set (hard)
>
> 2. Without units (not user-friendly)
>
> 3. Always in base units (seconds or bytes)
>
> 4. The largest unit that gives an integer
>
> (4) seems the most reasonable to me in terms of interface and
> implementation.

4. would be the best option for human readers, but it would be a pain
for
a script that parses command output.

Maybe 3. would be a good compromise.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe

On Tue, Jul 25, 2006 at 08:48:34AM +0200, Albe Laurenz wrote:
> Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> > So assuming we allowed units in postgresql.conf, how would you report 
> > them with SHOW?
> > 
> > 1. The way they were set (hard)
> > 
> > 2. Without units (not user-friendly)
> > 
> > 3. Always in base units (seconds or bytes)
> > 
> > 4. The largest unit that gives an integer
> > 
> > (4) seems the most reasonable to me in terms of interface and 
> > implementation.
5. Using whatever units were used in postgresql.conf

> 4. would be the best option for human readers, but it would be a pain
> for
> a script that parses command output.

For scripts I think the best bet would be to go with 3 on
current_setting().
-- 
Jim C. Nasby, Sr. Engineering Consultant      jnasby@pervasive.com
Pervasive Software      http://pervasive.com    work: 512-231-6117
vcard: http://jim.nasby.net/pervasive.vcf       cell: 512-569-9461

Jim C. Nasby wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 25, 2006 at 08:48:34AM +0200, Albe Laurenz wrote:
> > Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> > > So assuming we allowed units in postgresql.conf, how would you
> > > report them with SHOW?
> > >
> > > 1. The way they were set (hard)
> > >
> > > 2. Without units (not user-friendly)
> > >
> > > 3. Always in base units (seconds or bytes)
> > >
> > > 4. The largest unit that gives an integer
> > >
> > > (4) seems the most reasonable to me in terms of interface and
> > > implementation.
>
> 5. Using whatever units were used in postgresql.conf

That is (1).

-- 
Peter Eisentraut
http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/