Re: Use HostsFileName everywhere

On Mon, Jul 06, 2026 at 04:43:53PM -0700, surya poondla wrote:
> Hi Zsolt,
> Thanks for reporting the bug and the patch. If an operator changes the
> hosts_file GUC, without the patch those three messages don't get updated
> and it makes debugging a lot harder. The fix is clearly right.

Looks like an oversight of 4f433025f666. This is not critical, still
a nice life improvement if setting a custom file value for these error
messages.

> A couple of observations:
> 1. Small typo in the commit message "harcoded" → "hardcoded".
> 2. While reviewing I noticed a related NULL-safety question. This isn't
> caused by your patch, I was just digging to see whether it could turn into
> a crash or segfault after the change.

SetConfigOption() is called for hosts_file at an early startup stage,
as of SelectConfigFiles(). init_host_context() and be_tls_init()
require the GUCs to be loaded, meaning that a NULL value would not be
an issue because it will be either the default of pg_hosts.conf or the
custom value set in postgresql.conf. HBA and ident files work the
same way: we need them loaded before any authentication would kick in,
including direct SSL requests.

In short, I think that the patch should be OK. Purely cosmetic, still
OK. Daniel?
--
Michael