To: "Dan Langille" <dan@langille.org>
Cc: pgsql-docs@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Do we need "Diagnostics" sections of SQL command reference pages?
In-reply-to: <3F4B2628.2121.19C09262@localhost> 
References: <3F4B19B2.28737.198FE5CF@localhost>
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Comments: In-reply-to "Dan Langille" <dan@langille.org>
	message dated "Tue, 26 Aug 2003 09:19:36 -0400"
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 09:37:04 -0400
Message-ID: <9357.1061905024@sss.pgh.pa.us>
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

"Dan Langille" <dan@langille.org> writes:
> On 26 Aug 2003 at 9:14, Tom Lane wrote:
>> http://developer.postgresql.org/docs/postgres/sql-createdatabase.html

> The value I see in those message is it gives the reader more 
> information about what can go wrong.  The above example shows that 
> you cannot use "create database" within a transaction.

Sure, but that should have been stated in the command description.

> Also, the information under "ERROR: Could not initialize database 
> directory." is pretty good.

I chose this example deliberately, because it's one of very few pages
where there's actually nontrivial content in the Diagnostics section.
"could not initialize database directory" seems to me the only one
of these messages that requires more info (the "could not create
database directory" message now includes the kernel error code, so
it's sufficiently improved IMHO).  What I'm inclined to do about it
is add a DETAIL field showing the exact "cp" command that failed, and
perhaps a HINT suggesting that people look in the postmaster's stderr
log to see cp's complaint.  Not sure how to translate that to Windows,
but under Unix it should be sufficient no?

			regards, tom lane