Re: Better error message when --single is not the first arg to postgres executable

On 19.06.24 16:04, Nathan Bossart wrote:
>> What about just inlining --version and --help e.g.
>>
>> else if (strcmp(argv[i], "--version") == 0 || strcmp(argv[i], "-V") == 0)
>> {
>> fputs(PG_BACKEND_VERSIONSTR, stdout);
>> exit(0);
>> }
>>
>> I'm fine with being more persnickety about the other options; they are much
>> rarer and not unixy.
>
> That seems like it should work. I'm not sure I agree that's the least
> surprising behavior (e.g., what exactly is the user trying to tell us with
> commands like "postgres --version --help --describe-config"?), but I also
> don't feel too strongly about it.

There is sort of an existing convention that --help and --version behave
like this, meaning they act immediately and exit without considering
other arguments.

I'm not really sure all this here is worth solving. I think requiring
things like --single or --boot to be first seems ok, and the
alternatives just make things more complicated.