Re: pg_ctl.c

Gaetano Mendola wrote:

> Andrew Dunstan wrote:
>
>> Gaetano Mendola wrote:
>>
>>> Bruce Momjian wrote:
>>>
>>> however below the result of my quich review:
>>>
>>> 1) exit(1) => exit(EXIT_FAILURE)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> If we used a number of different error codes I might agree. But it
>> seems pointless here, and the style is widely used in our code base
>> (I just counted 201 other occurrrences, not including cases of
>> exit(0) ).
>
>
> This doesn't mean that we don't have to.

We should be consistent. If you want to prepare a global patch that
replaces every instance of exit(n) with exit(SOME_CONSTANT) then be my
guest.

>
>
>>> 2) xstrdup protected by duplicate NULL string
>>
>> I don't object, but it is redundant - in every case where it is
>> called the argument is demonstrably not NULL.
>
>
> Now it's true, and in the future ? Bruce was arguing about that check
> that if the string is null the program simply will exit crashing!
> I really appreciate the quality software of Postgres but some time
> I don't understand why test "NULL" pointer is an overkill for you.
> I mean xstrdup is supposed to be the strdup safe version, and without
> that control is not safe, why don't use directly the strdup then ?
> If there is no memory available before postgresql start go figure after!
>

I am not arguing that we should crash. I am arguing that we will not
crash in this case, and the test is therefore redundant.

I already said I don't object to the change, if that's the consensus,
just that it is unnecessary. BTW, this code was lifted directly from
initdb.c.

I'd far rather you found real bugs than the ghosts of imaginary bugs,
though.

cheers

andrew