Re: Change 'pg_ctl: no server running' Exit Status to 3

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According to Linux Standard Base Core Specification 3.1 [1], the exit
status should be '3' when the server isn't running.

I've attached a very simple patch that resolves this cosmetic issue,
which applies to all branches.

My initial search regarding other platforms has turned up nil. It looks
like they just check for a zero or non-zero exit status.

As for the necessity of the patch: Gentoo Linux uses pg_ctl in all of
its initscript actions for PostgreSQL. I'd imagine that Gentoo is not
the only distribution that takes advantage of pg_ctl for its initscript
actions.

Sincerely,
Mr. Aaron W. Swenson

[1]
http://refspecs.freestandards.org/LSB_3.1.1/LSB-Core-generic/LSB-Core-generic/iniscrptact.html
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On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 8:50 PM, Aaron W. Swenson
<aaron(dot)w(dot)swenson(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
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>
> According to Linux Standard Base Core Specification 3.1 [1], the exit
> status should be '3' when the server isn't running.
>
> I've attached a very simple patch that resolves this cosmetic issue,
> which applies to all branches.
>
> My initial search regarding other platforms has turned up nil. It looks
> like they just check for a zero or non-zero exit status.
>
> As for the necessity of the patch: Gentoo Linux uses pg_ctl in all of
> its initscript actions for PostgreSQL. I'd imagine that Gentoo is not
> the only distribution that takes advantage of pg_ctl for its initscript
> actions.

I'd be disinclined to back-patch this as it might break things for
people. But I see no harm in applying it to master, if nobody
objects...

--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company

On mån, 2011-05-23 at 20:50 -0400, Aaron W. Swenson wrote:
> According to Linux Standard Base Core Specification 3.1 [1], the exit
> status should be '3' when the server isn't running.
>
> I've attached a very simple patch that resolves this cosmetic issue,
> which applies to all branches.

If we're going to make the exit status meaningful, it should probably be
added to the documentation.

Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> On m?n, 2011-05-23 at 20:50 -0400, Aaron W. Swenson wrote:
> > According to Linux Standard Base Core Specification 3.1 [1], the exit
> > status should be '3' when the server isn't running.
> >
> > I've attached a very simple patch that resolves this cosmetic issue,
> > which applies to all branches.
>
> If we're going to make the exit status meaningful, it should probably be
> added to the documentation.

Patch attached and applied, with docs. I also cleaned up some C
comments, which are not in the attached patch.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ It's impossible for everything to be true. +