Re: Thoughts on pg_hba.conf rejection

Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>

From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
To: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Cc: Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>, Aidan Van Dyk <aidan@highrise.ca>, Joshua Tolley <eggyknap@gmail.com>, Simon Riggs <simon@2ndquadrant.com>, pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
Date: 2010-04-15T00:31:17Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
Tom Lane wrote:
> Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:
> > What's wrong with something like "connection not permitted" or
> > "connection not authorized"?
> 
> The case that we're trying to cater to with the existing wording is
> novice DBAs, who are likely to stare at such a message and not even
> realize that pg_hba.conf is what they need to change.  Frankly, by
> the time anyone is using REJECT entries they are probably advanced
> enough to not need much help from the error message; but what you
> propose is an absolute lock to increase the number of newbie questions
> on the lists by a large factor.

Agreed.  I would rather have an inaccurate error message that mentions
pg_hba.conf than an accurate one that doesn't.

Error messages should always point at a solution, if possible.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com