I get asked many questions about parameter settings in PostgreSQL. Everybody's busy and most people want a 5-minute tour of how things work. That's exactly what a Cookbook does, so we'll do our best.

Some people believe that there are some magical parameter settings that will improve their performance, spending hours combing the pages of books to glean insights. Others feel comfortable because they have found some website somewhere that "explains everything", and they "know" they have their database configured OK.

For the most part, the settings are easy to understand. Finding the best setting can be difficult, and the optimal setting may change over time in some cases. This chapter is mostly about knowing how, when, and where to change parameter settings.