Re: [patch] ask for username if getting UID fails

Branko Čibej wrote:

>>If by some weird offchance it ever does
>>happen, there's no reason Subversion should take responsibility for
>>reporting it to the user.
>>
>Why not?

because it doesn't prevent subversion from doing it's job.
Subversion simply can get the required information another
way (ask for it).

IMHO an application should only show an error to the user if there's
really, really _no_ other way to do what the user wants. If you
throw out every little error to the user you just get to the point
where the user either stops using your program or finds a way
to ignore the error messages.

Imagine a linux installation would work like this:
- hardware recognition in progress.
- network card found
- can't read manufacturer of card or type of card
- show error and exit

I would immediately throw away such a distro. I would expect
the installation process to tell me that there's an unknown
card installed and that it needs me (the user) to fill in all
information it can't get itself. That way I can proceed with
the installation.

>>getpwuid() of the result could fail. That's an error, but not a
>>terribly serious one. Again, there's no reason Subversion shouldn't
>>fall back to asking for a username in this case; we are a version
>>control system, not a system diagnostic tool.
>>
>Again, why not? We report network errors instead of trying to reconnect.
>It's not Subversion's job to try to recover from system errors.
>

Network errors are a little bit different. They occur while a subversion
command is in progress, and there's no other way to do the command.
For example you can't ask the _user_ to transport the data over the network.

but for a simple UID you _can_ ask the user instead.
That's the difference.

Stefan

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