On Thursday, June 19, 2025, Tatsuo Ishii <
ishii@postgresql.org> wrote:
> FWIW my reading of the protocol docs is that BackendKeyData is
> optional.
If majority of developers think so, do we want to update the protocol
docs? For me the docs is not clear enough.
At this point why does it matter what the docs says? You know what exists in reality and you can either change or not.
That said, the documentation makes it clear that absent an error the server shall send:
2 or more (some) ParameterStatus messages
Followed by
1 BackendKeyData message
Followed by
1 ReadyForQuery message
So the protocol is violated if the BackendKeyData is absent. I don’t see why we should change that since we adhere to it and it’s our protocol; but also its absence is non-fatal to the typical operation of the server…
David J.
