Re: Prefixing libpq error message with function names - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Bruce Momjian
Subject Re: Prefixing libpq error message with function names
Date
Msg-id 200107121709.f6CH9BT13889@candle.pha.pa.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Prefixing libpq error message with function names  (Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>)
List pgsql-hackers
> Most, or at least half, of the error messages that libpq itself generates
> look like "PQwhatever():  this and that went wrong", where PQwhatever is
> usually the function that generates the error message.
> 
> I consider this practice ugly.  If PQwhatever is an exported API function,
> then the users knows perfectly well what function the message came from.
> In fact, a common idiom is
> 
>   if (PQsomething() != OK)
>     fprintf(stderr, "PQsomething: %s", PQerrorMessage(conn));
> 
> which is obviously going to look funky.
> 
> If PQwhatever is an internal function, then this practice is just plain
> confusing to the user.  In some cases the code tries to be smart and pass
> in the name of "front line" API function, but this doesn't really end up
> helping anybody.
> 
> libpq is not complex and large enough that it would be tedious for a
> developer to locate any given error message or derive the location in case
> of a rare duplicate.  (I understand that in the backend this premise does
> not necessarily hold, but I'm only talking about libpq.)
> 
> So would anyone object if I get rid of this while doing the i18n pass over
> libpq?

I vote it should be removed too.

--  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610)
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