Re: 9.2 beta2 - pg_ctl crashes on Win32 when neither PGDATA nor -D specified

Edmund Horner <ejrh00(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> In 9.1, if I run "pg_ctl start" without providing way for it to find
> the datadir, it prints the error:

> C:\ehorner\pgsql-old\bin>pg_ctl start
> pg_ctl: no database directory specified and environment variable
> PGDATA unset
> Try "pg_ctl --help" for more information.

> In 9.2 (beta1 and beta2), it runs for a couple of seconds and then
> Windows pops up an error box saying it has "encountered a problem". I
> ...
> I think it could be something in
> http://git.postgresql.org/gitweb/?p=postgresql.git;a=commitdiff;h=aaa6e1def292cdacb6b27088898793b1b879fedf#patch5

Hm, that patch seems to be several bricks shy of a load. I will fix
two obvious bugs in it:

(1) not dump core on boxes where printf("%s", NULL) dumps core;

(2) not try to call adjust_data_dir before complaining for lack of
a -D switch; since adjust_data_dir does not do anything to the value
of pg_config, it's just silly to do things in that order.

However,

> I note that "postgres -C data_directory" will refuse to run on the
> command line because I've got admin privileges in Windows, and that
> pg_ctl normally starts postgres.exe using CreateRestrictedProcess.
> But it does not do so for the popen call in adjust_data_dir.

if that actually is a third bug, as seems likely, somebody with access
to a windows environment will need to deal with it.

regards, tom lane