Re: Misleading/inaccurate error message from pg_basebackup - Mailing list pgsql-bugs

From Casey
Subject Re: Misleading/inaccurate error message from pg_basebackup
Date
Msg-id F8CA6B47-9268-455B-A0F2-D2EBB1C85497@osss.net
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: Misleading/inaccurate error message from pg_basebackup  (Daniel Gustafsson <daniel@yesql.se>)
Responses Re: Misleading/inaccurate error message from pg_basebackup
List pgsql-bugs
Hmm, this must be a problem with the Debian packaging then.

root@prime-or1-pg-truth-2:~# file /usr/bin/pg_basebackup 

/usr/bin/pg_basebackup: symbolic link to ../share/postgresql-common/pg_wrapper


Do you know the correct place to file an appropriate report for the Debian package maintainers?

Thanks,
-- 
Casey

On Jan 23, 2024, at 5:27 AM, Daniel Gustafsson <daniel@yesql.se> wrote:

On 22 Jan 2024, at 17:47, c@osss.net wrote:

pg_basebackup can throw an error which is inaccurate and misleading:

$ pg_basebackup --version
Error: /var/lib/postgresql/14/main is not accessible; please fix the directory permissions (/var/lib/postgresql/14/ should be world readable)

In fact it does not need to be world readable at all - the subdirectory just needs to be created:

This check is being done in cases where it's unnecessary, as it shouldn't matter at all when running a simple --version or --help, anyways.

There is no such check before --version or --help, and no such check at all in
pg_basebackup.  Whatever is raising that error probably isn't postgres or
pg_basebackup.  When pg_basebackup logs an error it looks like this:

pg_basebackup: error: /var/lib/postgresql/14/main is not accessible

Something else is doing this on your system.

--
Daniel Gustafsson


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