Server configuration shot overview

Started by PG Bug reporting form3 days ago3 messagesdocs
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#1PG Bug reporting form
noreply@postgresql.org

The following documentation comment has been logged on the website:

Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/runtime-config.html
Description:

When reading the configuration parameters
(https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-wal.html) I found it
difficult to find fast the (for me) relevant information: What is the
default? When/how can it be changed? The information is/was always there but
somehow hidden in the text...

So I think it would be more convenient to have these informations summarized
in the beginning?

3 Examples:

synchronous_commit (enum)

--------------|----------
Context | user
Default Value | on
Minimum Value | -
Maximum Value | -
Unit | -
Valid Values | remote_apply, on, remote_write, local, off

Specifies how much WAL processing must complete before...

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-wal.html#GUC-SYNCHRONOUS-COMMIT

---

full_page_writes (boolean)

--------------|----------
Context | sighup
Default Value | on
Minimum Value | -
Maximum Value | -
Unit | -
Valid Values | on, off

When this parameter is on, the PostgreSQL server...

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-wal.html#GUC-SYNCHRONOUS-COMMIT

---

checkpoint_timeout (integer)

--------------|----------
Context | sighup
Default Value | 300
Minimum Value | 30
Maximum Value | 86400
Unit | s
Valid Values | -

Maximum time between automatic WAL checkpoints...

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-wal.html#GUC-CHECKPOINT-TIMEOUT

---

What are other thinking about? Is it worth to take the effort and if yes how
should this be done? All the 400 settings at once (pouhh!) or section by
section?

#2David G. Johnston
david.g.johnston@gmail.com
In reply to: PG Bug reporting form (#1)
Re: Server configuration shot overview

On Friday, July 31, 2026, PG Doc comments form <noreply@postgresql.org>
wrote:

The following documentation comment has been logged on the website:

Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/runtime-config.html
Description:

When reading the configuration parameters
(https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-wal.html) I found
it
difficult to find fast the (for me) relevant information: What is the
default? When/how can it be changed? The information is/was always there
but
somehow hidden in the text...

So I think it would be more convenient to have these informations
summarized
in the beginning?

What are other thinking about? Is it worth to take the effort and if yes
how
should this be done? All the 400 settings at once (pouhh!) or section by
section?

Leaning toward no, but if I were to do something like this I’d avoid manual
updates and instead derive it from the catalog data already in the source
tree.

David J.

#3Oli Sennhauser
oli.sennhauser@fromdual.com
In reply to: David G. Johnston (#2)
Re: Server configuration shot overview

Deriving it from the catalog data IMHO is definitely the way to go. I
was not aware that this could be possible...

What are your arguments for leaning toward no? For other software
products I really like it.

Regards,
Oli

On 31/07/2026 14:20, David G. Johnston wrote:

On Friday, July 31, 2026, PG Doc comments form
<noreply@postgresql.org> wrote:

The following documentation comment has been logged on the website:

Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/runtime-config.html
<https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/runtime-config.html&gt;
Description:

When reading the configuration parameters
(https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-wal.html
<https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-wal.html&gt;)
I found it
difficult to find fast the (for me) relevant information: What is the
default? When/how can it be changed? The information is/was always
there but
somehow hidden in the text...

So I think it would be more convenient to have these informations
summarized
in the beginning?

What are other thinking about? Is it worth to take the effort and
if yes how
should this be done? All the 400 settings at once (pouhh!) or
section by
section?

Leaning toward no, but if I were to do something like this I’d avoid
manual updates and instead derive it from the catalog data already in
the source tree.

David J.

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Phone: +41 44 500 58 20 Mobile: +41 79 830 09 33
oli.sennhauser@fromdual.com https://www.fromdual.com
Twitter: fromdual

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