These patches were created during an unrelated discussion about pgbench. Please see emails [1] - [6] linked below, for the past discussion.
In brief: > $ pgbench -i -I dtGvp -s 500 The init-steps are severely under-documented in pgbench --help output. I think at least a pointer to the the pgbench docs should be mentioned in the pgbench --help output; an average user may not rush to read the code to find the explanation, but a hint to where to find more details about what the letters in --init-steps mean, would save them a lot of time. Please see attached 4 variants of the patch. Variant 1 simply tells the reader to consult pgbench documentation. The second variant provides a description for each of the letters, as the documentation does. The committer can pick the one they find suitable. The text ", in the specified order" is an important detail, that should be included irrespective of the rest of the patch. My preference would be to use the first variant, since the second one feels too wordy for --help output. I believe we'll have to choose between these two; the alternatives will not make anyone happy. These two variants show the two extremes; bare minimum vs. everything but the kitchen sink. So one may feel the need to find a middle ground and provide a "sufficient, but not too much" variant. I have attempted that in variants 3 and 4; also attached. The third variant does away with the list of steps, and uses a paragraph to describe the letters. And the fourth variant makes that paragraph terse. In the order of preference I'd choose variant 1, then 2. Variants 3 and 4 feel like a significant degradation from variant 2. Attached samples.txt shows the snippets of --help output of each of the variants/patches, for comparison. In [6] below, Tristan showed preference for the second variant. [1] My complaint about -I initi_steps being severely under-documented in --help output https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CABwTF4XMdHTxemhskad41Vj_hp2nPgifjwegOqR52_8-wEbv2Q%40mail.gmail.com [2] Tristan Partin agreeing with the complaint, and suggesting a patch would be welcome https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CT8BC7RXT33R.3CHYIXGD5NVHK%40gonk [3] Greg Smith agreeing and saying he'd welcome a few more words about the init_steps in --help output https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CAHLJuCUp5_VUo%2BRJ%2BpSnxeiiZfcstRtTubRP8%2Bu8NEqmrbp4aw%40mail.gmail.com [4] First set of patches https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CABwTF4UKv43ZftJadsxs8%3Da07BmA1U4RU3W1qbmDAguVKJAmZw%40mail.gmail.com [5] Second set of patches https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CABwTF4Ww42arY1Q88_iaraVLxqSU%2B8Yb4oKiTT5gD1sineog9w%40mail.gmail.com [6] Tristan showing preference for the second variant https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/CTBN5E2K2YSJ.3QYXGZ09JZXIW%40gonk +CC Tristan Partin and Greg Smith, since they were involved in the initial thread. Best regards, Gurjeet http://Gurje.et
==== variant-1-brief-pointer-to-docs.patch
-i, --initialize invokes initialization mode
-I, --init-steps=[dtgGvpf]+ (default "dtgvp")
run selected initialization steps, in the specified
order
see pgbench documentation for a description of these
steps
-F, --fillfactor=NUM set fill factor
==== variant-2-detailed-description.patch
-i, --initialize invokes initialization mode
-I, --init-steps=[dtgGvpf]+ (default "dtgvp")
run selected initialization steps, in the specified
order
d: Drop any existing pgbench tables
t: Create the tables used by the standard pgbench
scenario
g: Generate data, client-side
G: Generate data, server-side
v: Invoke VACUUM on the standard tables
p: Create primary key indexes on the standard tables
f: Create foreign key constraints between the
standard tables
-F, --fillfactor=NUM set fill factor
==== variant-3-details-not-list.patch
-i, --initialize invokes initialization mode
-I, --init-steps=[dtgGvpf]+ (default "dtgvp")
run selected initialization steps, in the specified
order.
These steps operate on standard tables used by
pgbench
'd' drops the tables, 't' creates the tables, 'g'
generates
the data on client-side, 'G' generates data on
server-side,
'v' vaccums the tables, 'p' creates primary key
constraints,
and 'f' creates foreign key constraints
-F, --fillfactor=NUM set fill factor
==== variant-4-terse-details-not-list.patch
-i, --initialize invokes initialization mode
-I, --init-steps=[dtgGvpf]+ (default "dtgvp")
run selected initialization steps, in the specified
order.
These steps operate on standard tables used by
pgbench
'd' drop table, 't' create tables, 'g' generate data
client-side, 'G' generate data server-side, 'v'
vaccum
tables, 'p' create primary keys, 'f' create foreign
keys
-F, --fillfactor=NUM set fill factor
variant-2-detailed-description.patch
Description: Binary data
variant-1-brief-pointer-to-docs.patch
Description: Binary data
variant-4-terse-details-not-list.patch
Description: Binary data
variant-3-details-not-list.patch
Description: Binary data
