Re: proposal: a validator for configuration files

Excerpts from Florian Pflug's message of mié jul 13 20:12:28 -0400 2011:
> On Jul14, 2011, at 01:38 , Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> > One strange thing here is that you could get two such messages; say if a
> > file has 100 parse errors and there are also valid lines that contain
> > bogus settings (foo = bar).  I don't find this to be too problematic,
> > and I think fixing it would be excessively annoying.
> > 
> > For example, a bogus run would end like this:
> > 
> > 95 LOG:  syntax error in file "/pgsql/install/HEAD/data/postgresql.conf" line 4, near end of line
> > 96 LOG:  syntax error in file "/pgsql/install/HEAD/data/postgresql.conf" line 41, near end of line
> > 97 LOG:  syntax error in file "/pgsql/install/HEAD/data/postgresql.conf" line 104, near end of line
> > 98 LOG:  syntax error in file "/pgsql/install/HEAD/data/postgresql.conf" line 156, near end of line
> > 99 LOG:  syntax error in file "/pgsql/install/HEAD/data/postgresql.conf" line 208, near end of line
> > 100 LOG:  syntax error in file "/pgsql/install/HEAD/data/postgresql.conf" line 260, near end of line
> > 101 LOG:  too many errors found, stopped processing file "/pgsql/install/HEAD/data/postgresql.conf"
> > 102 LOG:  unrecognized configuration parameter "plperl.err"
> > 103 LOG:  unrecognized configuration parameter "this1"
> > 104 LOG:  too many errors found, stopped processing file "/pgsql/install/HEAD/data/postgresql.conf"
> > 105 FATAL:  errors detected while parsing configuration files
> 
> How about changing ParseConfigFile to say "too many *syntax* error found"
> instead? It'd be more precise, and we wouldn't emit exactly the
> same message twice.

Yeah, I thought about doing it that way but refrained because it'd be
one more string to translate.  That's a poor reason, I admit :-)  I'll
change it.

> Do you want me to take a closer look at your modified version of the
> patch before you commit, or did you post it more as a "FYI, this is
> how it's going to look like"?

I know I'd feel more comfortable if you (and Alexey, and Selena) gave it
another look :-)

-- 
Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@commandprompt.com>
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