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From: Ron Johnson <[email protected]>
To: Pgsql-admin <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Is the pg_isready database name relevant?
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2025 13:31:47 -0500
Message-ID: <CANzqJaDeSSu0jaCkLKPbyEi085h_Bm3NGwH2Ep3SKN4QWbTt3A@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAKFQuwa4tW-s0t6ezpbB21TOQEWupYJmXoU454aL3yG7WysGrw@mail.gmail.com>
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On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 1:18 PM David G. Johnston <
[email protected]> wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 24, 2025, 09:53 Ron Johnson <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 11:45 AM David G. Johnston <
>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> On Monday, November 24, 2025, Ron Johnson <[email protected]>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 11:30 AM David G. Johnston <
>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Monday, November 24, 2025, Ron Johnson <[email protected]>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> The "-d, --dbname=DBNAME" option is mentioned in --help output, but
>>>>>> pg_isready ignores nonexistent databases.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Is this an application bug, a minor doc bug or am I missing something?
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> It’s documented in the Notes section.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> That seems odd.  Why mention an option in --help if the option isn't
>>>> needed?
>>>>
>>>
>>> Because it exists - and I figure most people should use it to not put
>>> spurious errors into the logs.
>>>
>>
>> The person on the client side isn't thinking about what's going in the PG
>> server's logs.
>>
>> This is something that *should* be fixed.  Very low priority, after the
>> data corruption and feature bugs, and useful new features added, but either
>> return an error code if the client user doesn't have access to that
>> database, or remove the option.
>>
>
> It reports whether the cluster is ready, not any specific database or for
> any specific user.  It works just fine for its intent.  Sure, it could be
> modified to also do something different.  But you haven't explained why
> that would be a worthwhile use of effort.  All I'm seeing it admittedly a
> slightly non-intuitative specification that does require reading and some
> degree of caring on the part of the user.  And probably some recognition
> that it works this way because the backend protocol doesn't allow for those
> values to be made optional and so the current implementation is a bit of a
> hack to get around that fact.
>

"Option exists, is mentioned in --help, but doesn't do anything" is a (very
low priority) bug.  That's plain and simple.

You'd say the same thing about a non-Postgresql program that you use, but
you resist it in the system you're invested in.

-- 
Death to <Redacted>, and butter sauce.
Don't boil me, I'm still alive.
<Redacted> lobster!


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