Re: not translating backend types for ps and log_line_prefix

On 2025-Dec-10, Heikki Linnakangas wrote:

> On 10/12/2025 15:45, Álvaro Herrera wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > Pursuant to my comments in [1], I attach a patch that restricts the use
> > of translated process types as indicated in $SUBJECT.  This adds a
> > separate column to the process type list, mostly extracted from Euler's
> > patch, not marked for translation, and uses it in a couple of places.
> > I think this is more reasonable.  I chose to CC Heikki here because the
> > business with translating these strings was, as I recall, his doing ...
> > 
> > [1] https://postgr.es/m/202512091806.bsugq2l4wz7f@alvherre.pgsql
> 
> Hm, I don't think I've changed how they're translated. At least not
> intentionally.

Hmm, maybe I misunderstood how the code was changing in these patches,
but I was thinking of
https://postgr.es/m/8e710eaa-fcfe-4a0b-ae90-87743083e777@iki.fi

Anyway, I think it's rather strange that %b in log_min_message expands
to these long strings which is why I propose to change it to shorter
ones.

> > +PG_PROCTYPE(B_AUTOVAC_LAUNCHER, "autovacuum", gettext_noop("autovacuum launcher"), AutoVacLauncherMain, true)
> > +PG_PROCTYPE(B_AUTOVAC_WORKER, "autovacuum", gettext_noop("autovacuum worker"), AutoVacWorkerMain, true)
> 
> It seems not nice that both have the same name, "autovacuum". Similarly, I
> think it's good to have different names for dead-end backends and regular
> backends.

True, I was not sure about this either.  For context, Euler's patch[2] was
adding a new column called "category" for use with his new
representation of log_min_messages, and he decided that something like
"autovacuum:DEBUG" should affect both the worker and the launcher.  I'm
not sure myself that this is a good idea, because if you want DEBUG for
just one and not the other, the proposed interface doesn't let you do
that.

[2] https://postgr.es/m/144f0f96-c6d3-4ad6-a236-00200513e2e0@app.fastmail.com

I'd be okay with instead adding "avlauncher", "avworker", "dead-end",
"standalone", to differentiate all those types.  ("av" sounds perhaps
too mysterious, so maybe "autovaclauncher" and "autovacworker" for
those?) Bikeshedding, again, welcome.  


> No objections to the general idea, although I think the current
> descriptions are fairly short already.

True, but names with spaces would be unhelpful for log_min_messages.

-- 
Álvaro Herrera        Breisgau, Deutschland  —  https://www.EnterpriseDB.com/
"Siempre hay que alimentar a los dioses, aunque la tierra esté seca" (Orual)