PostgreSQL Source Code git master
pg_config_manual.h
Go to the documentation of this file.
1/*------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 * PostgreSQL manual configuration settings
3 *
4 * This file contains various configuration symbols and limits. In
5 * all cases, changing them is only useful in very rare situations or
6 * for developers. If you edit any of these, be sure to do a *full*
7 * rebuild (and an initdb if noted).
8 *
9 * Portions Copyright (c) 1996-2025, PostgreSQL Global Development Group
10 * Portions Copyright (c) 1994, Regents of the University of California
11 *
12 * src/include/pg_config_manual.h
13 *------------------------------------------------------------------------
14 */
15
16/*
17 * This is the default value for wal_segment_size to be used when initdb is run
18 * without the --wal-segsize option. It must be a valid segment size.
19 */
20#define DEFAULT_XLOG_SEG_SIZE (16*1024*1024)
21
22/*
23 * SLRU segment size. A page is the same BLCKSZ as is used everywhere else in
24 * Postgres. The segment size can be chosen somewhat arbitrarily; we make it
25 * 32 pages by default, or 256Kb, i.e. 1M transactions for CLOG or 64K
26 * transactions for SUBTRANS.
27 *
28 * Changing this requires an initdb.
29 */
30#define SLRU_PAGES_PER_SEGMENT 32
31
32/*
33 * Maximum length for identifiers (e.g. table names, column names,
34 * function names). Names actually are limited to one fewer byte than this,
35 * because the length must include a trailing zero byte.
36 *
37 * Changing this requires an initdb.
38 */
39#define NAMEDATALEN 64
40
41/*
42 * Maximum number of arguments to a function.
43 *
44 * The minimum value is 8 (GIN indexes use 8-argument support functions).
45 * The maximum possible value is around 600 (limited by index tuple size in
46 * pg_proc's index; BLCKSZ larger than 8K would allow more). Values larger
47 * than needed will waste memory and processing time, but do not directly
48 * cost disk space.
49 *
50 * Changing this does not require an initdb, but it does require a full
51 * backend recompile (including any user-defined C functions).
52 */
53#define FUNC_MAX_ARGS 100
54
55/*
56 * When creating a product derived from PostgreSQL with changes that cause
57 * incompatibilities for loadable modules, it is recommended to change this
58 * string so that dfmgr.c can refuse to load incompatible modules with a clean
59 * error message. Typical examples that cause incompatibilities are any
60 * changes to node tags or node structures. (Note that dfmgr.c already
61 * detects common sources of incompatibilities due to major version
62 * differences and due to some changed compile-time constants. This setting
63 * is for catching anything that cannot be detected in a straightforward way.)
64 *
65 * There is no prescribed format for the string. The suggestion is to include
66 * product or company name, and optionally any internally-relevant ABI
67 * version. Example: "ACME Postgres/1.2". Note that the string will appear
68 * in a user-facing error message if an ABI mismatch is detected.
69 */
70#define FMGR_ABI_EXTRA "PostgreSQL"
71
72/*
73 * Maximum number of columns in an index. There is little point in making
74 * this anything but a multiple of 32, because the main cost is associated
75 * with index tuple header size (see access/itup.h).
76 *
77 * Changing this requires an initdb.
78 */
79#define INDEX_MAX_KEYS 32
80
81/*
82 * Maximum number of columns in a partition key
83 */
84#define PARTITION_MAX_KEYS 32
85
86/*
87 * This symbol is now vestigial: built-in 8-byte types, including float8,
88 * int8, and timestamp, are always passed by value since we require Datum
89 * to be wide enough to permit that. We continue to define the symbol here
90 * so as not to unnecessarily break extension code.
91 */
92#define USE_FLOAT8_BYVAL 1
93
94
95/*
96 * MAXPGPATH: standard size of a pathname buffer in PostgreSQL (hence,
97 * maximum usable pathname length is one less).
98 *
99 * We'd use a standard system header symbol for this, if there weren't
100 * so many to choose from: MAXPATHLEN, MAX_PATH, PATH_MAX are all
101 * defined by different "standards", and often have different values
102 * on the same platform! So we just punt and use a reasonably
103 * generous setting here.
104 */
105#define MAXPGPATH 1024
106
107/*
108 * You can try changing this if you have a machine with bytes of
109 * another size, but no guarantee...
110 */
111#define BITS_PER_BYTE 8
112
113/*
114 * Preferred alignment for disk I/O buffers. On some CPUs, copies between
115 * user space and kernel space are significantly faster if the user buffer
116 * is aligned on a larger-than-MAXALIGN boundary. Ideally this should be
117 * a platform-dependent value, but for now we just hard-wire it.
118 */
119#define ALIGNOF_BUFFER 32
120
121/*
122 * If EXEC_BACKEND is defined, the postmaster uses an alternative method for
123 * starting subprocesses: Instead of simply using fork(), as is standard on
124 * Unix platforms, it uses fork()+exec() or something equivalent on Windows,
125 * as well as lots of extra code to bring the required global state to those
126 * new processes. This must be enabled on Windows (because there is no
127 * fork()). On other platforms, it's only useful for verifying those
128 * otherwise Windows-specific code paths.
129 */
130#if defined(WIN32) && !defined(__CYGWIN__)
131#define EXEC_BACKEND
132#endif
133
134/*
135 * USE_POSIX_FADVISE controls whether Postgres will attempt to use the
136 * posix_fadvise() kernel call. Usually the automatic configure tests are
137 * sufficient, but some older Linux distributions had broken versions of
138 * posix_fadvise(). If necessary you can remove the #define here.
139 */
140#if HAVE_DECL_POSIX_FADVISE && defined(HAVE_POSIX_FADVISE)
141#define USE_POSIX_FADVISE
142#endif
143
144/*
145 * USE_PREFETCH code should be compiled only if we have a way to implement
146 * prefetching. (This is decoupled from USE_POSIX_FADVISE because there
147 * might in future be support for alternative low-level prefetch APIs,
148 * as well as platform-specific APIs defined elsewhere.)
149 */
150#ifdef USE_POSIX_FADVISE
151#define USE_PREFETCH
152#endif
153
154/*
155 * Default and maximum values for backend_flush_after, bgwriter_flush_after
156 * and checkpoint_flush_after; measured in blocks. Currently, these are
157 * enabled by default if sync_file_range() exists, ie, only on Linux. Perhaps
158 * we could also enable by default if we have mmap and msync(MS_ASYNC)?
159 */
160#ifdef HAVE_SYNC_FILE_RANGE
161#define DEFAULT_BACKEND_FLUSH_AFTER 0 /* never enabled by default */
162#define DEFAULT_BGWRITER_FLUSH_AFTER 64
163#define DEFAULT_CHECKPOINT_FLUSH_AFTER 32
164#else
165#define DEFAULT_BACKEND_FLUSH_AFTER 0
166#define DEFAULT_BGWRITER_FLUSH_AFTER 0
167#define DEFAULT_CHECKPOINT_FLUSH_AFTER 0
168#endif
169/* upper limit for all three variables */
170#define WRITEBACK_MAX_PENDING_FLUSHES 256
171
172/*
173 * USE_SSL code should be compiled only when compiling with an SSL
174 * implementation.
175 */
176#ifdef USE_OPENSSL
177#define USE_SSL
178#endif
179
180/*
181 * This is the default directory in which AF_UNIX socket files are
182 * placed. Caution: changing this risks breaking your existing client
183 * applications, which are likely to continue to look in the old
184 * directory. But if you just hate the idea of sockets in /tmp,
185 * here's where to twiddle it. You can also override this at runtime
186 * with the postmaster's -k switch.
187 *
188 * If set to an empty string, then AF_UNIX sockets are not used by default: A
189 * server will not create an AF_UNIX socket unless the run-time configuration
190 * is changed, a client will connect via TCP/IP by default and will only use
191 * an AF_UNIX socket if one is explicitly specified.
192 *
193 * This is done by default on Windows because there is no good standard
194 * location for AF_UNIX sockets and many installations on Windows don't
195 * support them yet.
196 */
197#ifndef WIN32
198#define DEFAULT_PGSOCKET_DIR "/tmp"
199#else
200#define DEFAULT_PGSOCKET_DIR ""
201#endif
202
203/*
204 * This is the default event source for Windows event log.
205 */
206#define DEFAULT_EVENT_SOURCE "PostgreSQL"
207
208/*
209 * Assumed cache line size. This doesn't affect correctness, but can be used
210 * for low-level optimizations. This is mostly used to pad various data
211 * structures, to ensure that highly-contended fields are on different cache
212 * lines. Too small a value can hurt performance due to false sharing, while
213 * the only downside of too large a value is a few bytes of wasted memory.
214 * The default is 128, which should be large enough for all supported
215 * platforms.
216 */
217#define PG_CACHE_LINE_SIZE 128
218
219/*
220 * Assumed alignment requirement for direct I/O. 4K corresponds to common
221 * sector and memory page size.
222 */
223#define PG_IO_ALIGN_SIZE 4096
224
225/*
226 *------------------------------------------------------------------------
227 * The following symbols are for enabling debugging code, not for
228 * controlling user-visible features or resource limits.
229 *------------------------------------------------------------------------
230 */
231
232/*
233 * Force use of the non-recursive JSON parser in all cases. This is useful
234 * to validate the working of the parser, and the regression tests should
235 * pass except for some different error messages about the stack limit.
236 */
237/* #define FORCE_JSON_PSTACK */
238
239/*
240 * Include Valgrind "client requests", mostly in the memory allocator, so
241 * Valgrind understands PostgreSQL memory contexts. This permits detecting
242 * memory errors that Valgrind would not detect on a vanilla build. It also
243 * enables detection of buffer accesses that take place without holding a
244 * buffer pin (or without holding a buffer lock in the case of index access
245 * methods that superimpose their own custom client requests on top of the
246 * generic bufmgr.c requests).
247 *
248 * "make installcheck" is significantly slower under Valgrind. The client
249 * requests fall in hot code paths, so USE_VALGRIND slows execution by a few
250 * percentage points even when not run under Valgrind.
251 *
252 * Do not try to test the server under Valgrind without having built the
253 * server with USE_VALGRIND; else you will get false positives from sinval
254 * messaging (see comments in AddCatcacheInvalidationMessage). It's also
255 * important to use the suppression file src/tools/valgrind.supp to
256 * exclude other known false positives.
257 *
258 * You should normally use MEMORY_CONTEXT_CHECKING with USE_VALGRIND;
259 * instrumentation of repalloc() is inferior without it.
260 */
261/* #define USE_VALGRIND */
262
263/*
264 * Define this to cause pfree()'d memory to be cleared immediately, to
265 * facilitate catching bugs that refer to already-freed values.
266 * Right now, this gets defined automatically if --enable-cassert.
267 */
268#ifdef USE_ASSERT_CHECKING
269#define CLOBBER_FREED_MEMORY
270#endif
271
272/*
273 * Define this to check memory allocation errors (scribbling on more
274 * bytes than were allocated). Right now, this gets defined
275 * automatically if --enable-cassert or USE_VALGRIND.
276 */
277#if defined(USE_ASSERT_CHECKING) || defined(USE_VALGRIND)
278#define MEMORY_CONTEXT_CHECKING
279#endif
280
281/*
282 * Define this to cause palloc()'d memory to be filled with random data, to
283 * facilitate catching code that depends on the contents of uninitialized
284 * memory. Caution: this is horrendously expensive.
285 */
286/* #define RANDOMIZE_ALLOCATED_MEMORY */
287
288/*
289 * For cache-invalidation debugging, define DISCARD_CACHES_ENABLED to enable
290 * use of the debug_discard_caches GUC to aggressively flush
291 * syscache/relcache/relsynccache entries whenever it's possible to deliver
292 * invalidations. See AcceptInvalidationMessages() in
293 * src/backend/utils/cache/inval.c for details.
294 *
295 * USE_ASSERT_CHECKING builds default to enabling this. It's possible to use
296 * DISCARD_CACHES_ENABLED without a cassert build and the implied
297 * CLOBBER_FREED_MEMORY and MEMORY_CONTEXT_CHECKING options, but it's unlikely
298 * to be as effective at identifying problems.
299 */
300/* #define DISCARD_CACHES_ENABLED */
301
302#if defined(USE_ASSERT_CHECKING) && !defined(DISCARD_CACHES_ENABLED)
303#define DISCARD_CACHES_ENABLED
304#endif
305
306/*
307 * Backwards compatibility for the older compile-time-only clobber-cache
308 * macros.
309 */
310#if !defined(DISCARD_CACHES_ENABLED) && (defined(CLOBBER_CACHE_ALWAYS) || defined(CLOBBER_CACHE_RECURSIVELY))
311#define DISCARD_CACHES_ENABLED
312#endif
313
314/*
315 * Recover memory used for relcache entries when invalidated. See
316 * RelationBuildDesc() in src/backend/utils/cache/relcache.c.
317 *
318 * This is active automatically for clobber-cache builds when clobbering is
319 * active, but can be overridden here by explicitly defining
320 * RECOVER_RELATION_BUILD_MEMORY. Define to 1 to always free relation cache
321 * memory even when clobber is off, or to 0 to never free relation cache
322 * memory even when clobbering is on.
323 */
324 /* #define RECOVER_RELATION_BUILD_MEMORY 0 */ /* Force disable */
325 /* #define RECOVER_RELATION_BUILD_MEMORY 1 */ /* Force enable */
326
327/*
328 * Define DEBUG_NODE_TESTS_ENABLED to enable use of the GUCs
329 * debug_copy_parse_plan_trees, debug_write_read_parse_plan_trees, and
330 * debug_raw_expression_coverage_test, to test coverage of node support
331 * functions in src/backend/nodes/.
332 *
333 * USE_ASSERT_CHECKING builds default to enabling this.
334 */
335/* #define DEBUG_NODE_TESTS_ENABLED */
336
337#if defined(USE_ASSERT_CHECKING) && !defined(DEBUG_NODE_TESTS_ENABLED)
338#define DEBUG_NODE_TESTS_ENABLED
339#endif
340
341/*
342 * Backwards compatibility for the older compile-time-only node-tests macros.
343 */
344#if !defined(DEBUG_NODE_TESTS_ENABLED) && (defined(COPY_PARSE_PLAN_TREES) || defined(WRITE_READ_PARSE_PLAN_TREES) || defined(RAW_EXPRESSION_COVERAGE_TEST))
345#define DEBUG_NODE_TESTS_ENABLED
346#endif
347
348/*
349 * Define this to force Bitmapset reallocation on each modification. Helps
350 * to find dangling pointers to Bitmapset's.
351 */
352/* #define REALLOCATE_BITMAPSETS */
353
354/*
355 * Enable debugging print statements for lock-related operations.
356 */
357/* #define LOCK_DEBUG */
358
359/*
360 * Enable debugging print statements for WAL-related operations; see
361 * also the wal_debug GUC var.
362 */
363/* #define WAL_DEBUG */
364
365/*
366 * Enable tracing of syncscan operations (see also the trace_syncscan GUC var).
367 */
368/* #define TRACE_SYNCSCAN */