Re: unclear OAuth error message

On Fri, Mar 27, 2026 at 3:24 PM Daniel Gustafsson <daniel(at)yesql(dot)se> wrote:
> > IMO, no. I don't want error_detail to add semantics to the API, just
> > descriptive power. Plus, I think a design that sets a possible error
> > message before entering a complex operation, knowing that it will be
> > ignored on success, is perfectly valid. libpq-oauth, and to a lesser
> > extent libpq, make use of that pattern.
>
> Callsites can also clear the error message on success and not even rely on it
> being ignored.

Agreed, but are you saying that as an argument for my approach, or for Zsolt's?

> + * This string may be either of static duration or palloc'd.
> + */
> + char *error_detail;
>
> I'm not a big fan of "either static or allocated" and prefer if we just require
> one or the other. We have this pattern in other places so it's not a blocker
> for going it, but.

I don't think I can enforce either choice, though: I pass the
error_detail into the ereport(FATAL), so the process is about to go
down, and I'm never going to pfree() it.

--Jacob