Re: Prefixing libpq error message with function names

From: Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net>
Cc: PostgreSQL Development <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Prefixing libpq error message with function names
Date: 2001-07-12 17:09:10
Message-ID: 200107121709.f6CH9BT13889@candle.pha.pa.us
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> Most, or at least half, of the error messages that libpq itself generates
> look like "PQwhatever(): this and that went wrong", where PQwhatever is
> usually the function that generates the error message.
>
> I consider this practice ugly. If PQwhatever is an exported API function,
> then the users knows perfectly well what function the message came from.
> In fact, a common idiom is
>
> if (PQsomething() != OK)
> fprintf(stderr, "PQsomething: %s", PQerrorMessage(conn));
>
> which is obviously going to look funky.
>
> If PQwhatever is an internal function, then this practice is just plain
> confusing to the user. In some cases the code tries to be smart and pass
> in the name of "front line" API function, but this doesn't really end up
> helping anybody.
>
> libpq is not complex and large enough that it would be tedious for a
> developer to locate any given error message or derive the location in case
> of a rare duplicate. (I understand that in the backend this premise does
> not necessarily hold, but I'm only talking about libpq.)
>
> So would anyone object if I get rid of this while doing the i18n pass over
> libpq?

I vote it should be removed too.

--
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