From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com>
cc: "David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com>,
        Pgsql-admin <pgsql-admin@lists.postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: pg_ctl only allows 12 parameters?
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Comments: In-reply-to Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com>
	message dated "Mon, 18 Dec 2023 10:48:21 -0500"
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Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2023 11:09:23 -0500
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Ron Johnson <ronljohnsonjr@gmail.com> writes:
> On Mon, Dec 18, 2023 at 10:41 AM David G. Johnston <
> david.g.johnston@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm thinking that the forced ordering being different than what is
>> documented is a shell-specific issue.  As for why only one of restart,
>> stop, start, etc... can be specified for any given invocation of pg_ctl,
>> that seems like an entirely realistic limitation and typo-preventing
>> feature.

> The error message is "pg_ctl: *too many command-line arguments*".  It's
> manifestly obvious that the command failed when I added a "-" option, not a
> "start", "stop" command. and yet pg_ctl complained about command-line
> arguments.

The program's coding expects that optional switches will appear before
the action specifier.  You can get away with writing the action first
only if the version of getopt_long() that's in use will permute the
argument array to move non-options to the end.  That's always true on
glibc-based platforms, but otherwise usually not, at least in PG v14.

(Yes, I'm aware that pg_ctl's --help message claims this works
everywhere.  It's lying.)

Having said that, the most obvious way to explain the results you
seem to be getting is that you're using a version of getopt_long()
that tries to permute the arguments and is getting it wrong.
So, what's the platform?  And are you quite sure your psql is v14?

			regards, tom lane