Re: Add missing period to HINT messages

> 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.

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