Connection error messages stacks only contain functions in node-postgres

[jonganc]

For example

const db = new Pool({
  connectionString: 'postgresql://...@localhost:5432/...'
});
db.query('SELECT, * FROM test1');

generates the rather unhelpful stack

{ error: syntax error at or near ","
    at Connection.parseE (.../node_modules/pg/lib/connection.js:554:11)
    at Connection.parseMessage (.../node_modules/pg/lib/connection.js:379:19)
    at Socket.<anonymous> (.../node_modules/pg/lib/connection.js:119:22)
    at Socket.emit (events.js:182:13)
    at addChunk (_stream_readable.js:283:12)
    at readableAddChunk (_stream_readable.js:264:11)
    at Socket.Readable.push (_stream_readable.js:219:10)
    at TCP.onStreamRead [as onread] (internal/stream_base_commons.js:94:17)
  [stack]:
   'error: syntax error at or near ","\n    at Connection.parseE (.../node_modules/pg/lib/connection.js:554:11)\n    at Connection.parseMessage (.../node_modules/pg/lib/connection.js:379:19)\n    at Socket.<anonymous> (.../node_modules/pg/lib/connection.js:119:22)\n    at Socket.emit (events.js:182:13)\n    at addChunk (_stream_readable.js:283:12)\n    at readableAddChunk (_stream_readable.js:264:11)\n    at Socket.Readable.push (_stream_readable.js:219:10)\n    at TCP.onStreamRead [as onread] (internal/stream_base_commons.js:94:17)',
  [message]: 'syntax error at or near ","',
  ...}

Note, in particular, the absense of line numbers in my code, only in the node-postgres code.

It's easy enough to fix this outside of the package. I can just add something like

function withError(queryFunc) {
  return async function(query) {
    try {
      const res = await queryFunc.call(this, query);
    } catch (e) {
      throw new VError(e, 'pg error');
    }
  };
}
db.query = withError(db.query);

and then we get the error info.

I'm guessing this has something to do with the error being thrown by a listener or something (?)?

[joelmukuthu]

It’s a Node.js issue, see
#1762

[jonganc]

Huh. Yeah, I suppose it is due to nodejs/node#11865 ultimately. But I do wonder if there's a workaround, since it's quite simple to wrap query so you get the error stack (as I show above)...

[joelmukuthu]

I’m not a maintainer so I can’t say for certain, but I think this shouldn’t be handled in this library. It has actually been fixed in Node v12 (atm behind a feature flag I think) so I’d recommend your own workaround for now. Once again, just my opinion :)

[jonganc]

Yeah, if the only way to do it is to wrap it using something like VError on the package-level, I could see how the package would rather avoid that. Still, I'm curious if a maintainer will chime in, if only for future reference.

[jonganc]

So yeah, my workaround doesn't work. It's an underlying Node issue (that actually has been fixed). So... I'll close this.