Re: improving user.c error messages

On Fri, Jan 27, 2023 at 03:15:07PM -0800, Nathan Bossart wrote:
> One thing that feels a bit odd is how some of the DETAILs mention the
> operation being attempted while others do not.  For example, we have
> 
>     ERROR:  permission denied to drop role
>     DETAIL: You must have SUPERUSER privilege to drop roles with SUPERUSER.
> 
> In this case, the DETAIL explains the action that is prohibited.  In other
> cases, we have something like
> 
>     ERROR:  permission denied to alter role
>     DETAIL: You must have CREATEROLE privilege and ADMIN OPTION on role "myrole".
> 
> which does not.  I think this is okay because adding "to alter the role" to
> the end of the DETAIL seems kind of awkward.  But in other cases, such as
> 
>     ERROR:  permission denied to use replication slots
>     DETAIL:  You must have REPLICATION privilege.
> 
> adding the operation to the end seems less awkward (i.e., "You must have
> REPLICATION privilege to use replication slots.").  I don't think there's
> any information lost by omitting the action in the DETAIL, so perhaps this
> is just a stylistic choice.  I think I'm inclined to add the action to the
> DETAIL whenever it doesn't make the message lengthy and awkward, and leave
> it out otherwise.  Thoughts?

Here is a new patch set with this change and some other light editing.

-- 
Nathan Bossart
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