Re: pg_ctl status with nonexistent data directory

On Mon, Nov  4, 2013 at 11:31:30AM -0500, Robert Haas wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 2, 2013 at 3:32 PM, Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net> wrote:
> > This doesn't seem right:
> >
> > $ pg_ctl -D /nowhere status
> > pg_ctl: no server running
> >
> > It does exit with status 3, so it's not all that broken, but I think the
> > error message could be more accurate.
>
> I doubt anyone will object if you feel the urge to fix it.  I won't, anyway.

I have addressed this issue with the attached patch:

    $ pg_ctl -D /lkjasdf status
    pg_ctl: directory "/lkjasdf" does not exist
    $ pg_ctl -D / status
    pg_ctl: directory "/" is not a database cluster directory

One odd question is that pg_ctl status has this comment for reporting
the exit code for non-running servers:

    printf(_("%s: no server running\n"), progname);

    /*
     * The Linux Standard Base Core Specification 3.1 says this should return
     * '3'
     * https://refspecs.linuxbase.org/LSB_3.1.0/LSB-Core-generic/LSB-Core-generic/iniscrptact.html
     */
    exit(3);

If they haven't passed us a data directory, we don't really know if the
server is running or not, so the patch just returns '1'.


--
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com

  + Everyone has their own god. +