Re: Add missing period to HINT messages

> On Apr 9, 2026, at 11:24, Peter Smith <smithpb2250@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Apr 9, 2026 at 12:09 PM Chao Li <li.evan.chao@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Apr 9, 2026, at 07:30, Peter Smith <smithpb2250@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> According to the error message style guide [1], "Detail and hint
>>> messages: Use complete sentences, and end each with a period."
>>> 
>>> I found there is a small group of HINT messages not following that period rule.
>>> 
>>> PSA a patch that fixes the missing period. In passing, also fixed a
>>> typo in a hint message /msut/must/.
>>> 
>>> ~~~
>>> 
>>> On further inspection, lots of these affected messages don't even seem
>>> grammatically correct to me.
>>> 
>>> I did not modify them, but here are examples of what I mean.
>>> 
>>> e.g.
>>> "ALTER TABLE ... MERGE PARTITIONS can only merge partitions don't have
>>> sub-partitions."
>>> /don't have/that don't have/
>>> 
>>> e.g.
>>> "ALTER TABLE ... SPLIT PARTITION can only split partitions don't have
>>> sub-partitions."
>>> /don't have/that don't have/
>>> 
>>> e.g.
>>> "To split DEFAULT partition one of the new partition must be DEFAULT."
>>> missing word? -- "To split the DEFAULT partition"
>>> should be plural? -- "one of the new partitions"
>>> 
>>> e.g.
>>> "%s require combined bounds of new partitions must exactly match the
>>> bound of the split partition."
>>> /require/requires/ ?
>>> /match the bound/match the bounds/
>>> 
>>> ======
>>> [1] https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/error-style-guide.html#ERROR-STYLE-GUIDE-GRAMMAR-PUNCTUATION
>>> 
>>> Kind Regards,
>>> Peter Smith.
>>> Fujitsu Australia
>>> <v1-0001-Add-missing-period-to-HINT-messages.patch>
>> 
>> LGTM.
>> 
>> BTW, errdetail should follow the same style, and I see some detail messages miss periods, maybe this patch can include those as well.
>> 
> 
> Yep. It is already under way. I will post the equivalent errdetail
> patch shortly. (as soon as it passes running make- check-world).
> 
> ======
> Kind Regards,
> Peter Smith.
> Fujitsu Australia

I am not sure if your scope includes contrib/, if yes, I am sure you will find some occurrences there.

Best regards,
--
Chao Li (Evan)
HighGo Software Co., Ltd.
https://www.highgo.com/