Re: BUG #8139: initdb: Misleading error message when current user not in /etc/passwd

nicolas(at)marchildon(dot)net writes:
> "initdb: could not obtain information about current user: Success"

> The misleading part is the "Success". This comes from errno:

> pw = getpwuid(geteuid());
> if (!pw)
> {
> fprintf(stderr,
> _("%s: could not obtain information about current
> user: %s\n"),
> progname, strerror(errno));
> exit(1);
> }

> The man page says:

> RETURN VALUE
> The getpwnam() and getpwuid() functions return a pointer to a
> passwd
> structure, or NULL if the matching entry is not found or an
> error
> occurs. If an error occurs, errno is set appropriately. If one
> wants
> to check errno after the call, it should be set to zero before
> the
> call.

AFAICS, getpwuid is not honoring its specification here: it failed to
set errno. I don't see that suppressing the strerror result would add
anything much.

regards, tom lane