Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:
> As a side note, it's not very obvious why some parts of PostmasterMain
> report problems by doing write_stderr() and exit() while other parts
> use ereport(ERROR). This check and the nearby checks on WAL level are
> immediately preceded and followed by other checks that use the
> opposite technique.
This question is answered in postmaster.c's header comment:
* Error Reporting:* Use write_stderr() only for reporting "interactive" errors* (essentially, bogus
argumentson the command line). Once the* postmaster is launched, use ereport(). In particular, don't use*
write_stderr() for anything that occurs after pmdaemonize.
Code that is involved in GUC variable processing is in a gray area, though,
since it can be invoked both before and after pmdaemonize. It might be
a good idea to convert all the calls into ereports and maintain a state
flag in elog.c to determine what to do.
regards, tom lane
