Re: [NOVICE] Why psql connection assumes default database name as the username

I had the question specific to above two cases, when the database name is not provided. There is no surety of having a database name same as the user name. Then why assume the database name and try to connect to it. Is it due to legacy reason or due to some common database naming practice?

> In my specific case the problem is just that the database 'pgadmin' is not
> there, then why should it be a FATAL error. I understand that any process
> aborting errors are treated FATAL. But it looks like a simple error here.

Levels or errors are clearly defined:
1. ERROR means that something was wrong, but you can still continue to
   work in the db connection
2. FATAL means that something wrong happened, and you can't use the
   connection any more as it has closed.

Since failing to open db connection prohibits you from doing any more
work in the db connection (which is not there) - it's clearly FATAL and
not ERROR.

In this case the database does not exist, then connecting to a non existent database does not seem a FATAL issue.