Re: pgping?

On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 1:19 PM David G. Johnston <
david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:

> On Saturday, December 13, 2025, Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr(at)gmail(dot)com>
> wrote:
>>
>> pg_isready is "ncat -zv $host 5432" for systems which don't have ncat
>> installed.
>>
>
> Pretty sure this is also an incorrect, or at least incomplete statement.
> pg_isready uses the PostgreSQL wire protocol to make a better
> determination as to readiness than ncat does. People are just complaining
> that it doesn’t go further than it does. They see “user” and “database”
> and misinterpret why those options exist.
>

We've had this discussion before: people see the --dbname and --username
options, then quite reasonably think "ah, those options must mean you can
test whether a specific database and/or role can connect; otherwise, why
the heck would you put them in the --help output?"

Bottom line: the purpose of --dbname is to specify a database name; the
purpose of --username is to specify a username. Having them in the --help
output *misleads the user*.

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