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docs: clarify GETTABLE empty-reply and error semantics#30

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tobez merged 1 commit into
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gettable-error-docs
Jul 8, 2026
Merged

docs: clarify GETTABLE empty-reply and error semantics#30
tobez merged 1 commit into
mainfrom
gettable-error-docs

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@tobez tobez commented Jul 8, 2026

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Fixes #1.

The manual said GETTABLE's possible per-oid errors are "the same as in
GET", which set the expectation that walking a non-existent table
returns a "no-such-object" error the way GET does. It doesn't: the
underlying get-next/get-bulk queries cannot distinguish an empty table
from one the agent does not implement, so both produce a successful
reply with an empty array.

Manual changes (man page regenerated with pandoc):

  • state that "no-such-object" / "no-such-instance" never occur in
    GETTABLE replies;
  • explain that an empty reply array is a successful reply covering both
    the empty-table and non-existent-table cases;
  • relabel example reply 2, which previously showed the empty reply only
    for the special case of walking a leaf oid.

Documentation only; no behavior change.

@tobez tobez merged commit ae45ca5 into main Jul 8, 2026
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@tobez tobez deleted the gettable-error-docs branch July 8, 2026 11:28
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Documentation for GETTABLE error responses

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