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Clean up pages. Add information for operator precedence.

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Split introduction sections into separate files to allow the legal notice
 and notation sections appear in all documents without having the history
 show up everplace too.
Add full list of reserved and non-reserved key words in syntax.sgml.
Add a separate chapter to the admin guide on security.
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Thomas G. Lockhart
1998-09-30 05:41:54 +00:00
parent d1a3b7528d
commit 2d73585028
23 changed files with 1812 additions and 727 deletions
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doc/src/sgml/notation.sgml Normal file
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<sect1>
<title>Terminology</title>
<para>
In the following documentation,
<firstterm>site</firstterm>
may be interpreted as the host machine on which
<Productname>Postgres</Productname> is installed.
Since it is possible to install more than one set of
<Productname>Postgres</Productname>
databases on a single host, this term more precisely denotes any
particular set of installed
<Productname>Postgres</Productname> binaries and databases.
<para>
The
<Productname>Postgres</Productname> <firstterm>super-user</firstterm>
is the user named <replaceable>postgres</replaceable>
who owns the <Productname>Postgres</Productname>
binaries and database files. As the database super-user, all
protection mechanisms may be bypassed and any data accessed
arbitrarily.
In addition, the <Productname>Postgres</Productname> super-user is allowed to execute
some support programs which are generally not available to all users.
Note that the <Productname>Postgres</Productname> super-user is
<emphasis>not</emphasis>
the same as the Unix super-user (<literal>root</literal>),
and should have a non-zero userid for security reasons.
<para>
The
<firstterm>database base administrator</firstterm>
or <acronym>DBA</acronym>, is the person who is responsible for installing
<Productname>Postgres</Productname> with mechanisms to
enforce a security policy for a site. The DBA can add new users by
the method described below
and maintain a set of template databases for use by
<application>createdb</application>.
<para>
The <application>postmaster</application>
is the process that acts as a clearing-house for requests
to the <Productname>Postgres</Productname> system.
Frontend applications connect to the <application>postmaster</application>,
which keeps tracks of any system errors and communication between the
backend processes. The <application>postmaster</application>
can take several command-line arguments to tune its behavior.
However, supplying arguments is necessary only if you intend to run multiple
sites or a non-default site.
<para>
The <Productname>Postgres</Productname> backend
(the actual executable program <application>postgres</application>) may be executed
directly from the user shell by the
<Productname>Postgres</Productname> super-user
(with the database name as an argument). However,
doing this bypasses the shared buffer pool and lock table associated
with a postmaster/site, therefore this is not recommended in a multiuser
site.
<sect1>
<title>Notation</title>
<para>
<quote>...</quote> at the front of a file name is used to represent the
path to the <Productname>Postgres</Productname> super-user's home directory.
Anything in brackets
<quote>[</quote> and <quote>]</quote>) is optional. Anything in braces
(<quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>) can be repeated 0 or more times.
Parentheses (<quote>(</quote> and <quote>)</quote>) are used to group boolean
expressions. <quote>|</quote> is the boolean operator OR.
</sect1>