RE: [bug fix] Produce a crash dump before main() on Windows

From: Tom Lane [mailto:tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us]
> Alvaro Herrera from 2ndQuadrant <alvherre(at)alvh(dot)no-ip(dot)org> writes:
> > Well, IMV this is a backpatchable, localized bug fix.
>
> I dunno. This thread is approaching two years old, and a quick
> review shows few signs that we actually have any consensus on
> making behavioral changes here. If there is any consensus,
> it's that the SetErrorMode calls should depend on checking
> pgwin32_is_service(); but we haven't even seen a patch that
> does that, let alone tested it. I think we're way too close
> to beta4 wrap to be considering pushing such a patch the moment
> it appears.

We don't have to call pgwin32_is_service() to determine whether we call SetErrorMode() in postmaster.c because:

* The dialog box doesn't appear under Windows service, whether PostgreSQL itself starts as a service or another (server) application runs as a service and does "pg_ctl start."

* It's OK for the dialog box to appear when the user runs "pg_ctl start" on the command prompt. That usage is interactive, and should not be for production use (postgres processes vanish when the user mistakenly presses Ctrl+C, or closes the command prompt). Even now, the dialog box pops up if postmaster crashes before main().

> BTW, I also violently dislike taking Windows-specific stuff out of
> startup_hacks where it belongs and putting it into main() where
> it doesn't. I think the entire Windows bit in front of get_progname
> should migrate into startup_hacks. Surely the odds of failure
> inside get_progname are not worth worrying about --- they seem
> significantly less than the odds of failure inside
> pgwin32_is_service(), for instance.

Agreed. Fixed. I changed the CF status to "need review."

Regards
Takayuki Tsunakawa