Re: [patch] [doc] Clarify that signal functions have no feedback

On Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 1:19 AM Peter Eisentraut <
peter(dot)eisentraut(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com> wrote:

> On 2020-10-13 00:43, David G. Johnston wrote:
> > Over in Bug# 16652 [1] Christoph failed to recognize the fact that
> > signal sending functions are inherently one-way just as signals are. It
> > seems worth heading off this situation in the future by making it clear
> > how signals behave and, in the specific case of pg_reload_conf, that the
> > important feedback one would hope to get out of a success/failure
> > response from the function call must instead be found in other locations.
>
> I agree that the documentation could be improved here. But I don't see
> how the added advice actually helps in practice. How can you detect
> reload errors by inspecting pg_settings etc.?
>

I decided I was trying to be too thorough here by including stuff other
than the file related view added mainly for this purpose (of which I missed
including the one pertinent to the bug report - pg_hba_file_rules).

Attached is a version 2 patch listing only pg_hba_file_rules and
pg_file_settings as the "before reload" places (as they do show current
file contents) to validate that the server understands the newly changed
contents of the pg_hba.conf file and the configuration settings.

David J.