Return value of setGlobalXXX doesn't match documentation

[Flarna]

According to the documentation api.context.setGlobalContextManager() Returns the initialized context manager.

But actually it returns the ContextManager passed even if registerGlobal() detects that there is already a context manager installed and the passed ContextManager is not installed as global.

Similar api.propagation.setGlobalPropagator() returns the propagator passed instead that one installed global.

For api.trace.setGlobalTracerProvider() there is even a difference if installation happens as it always returns this._proxyTracerProvider.

I'm not sure what's correct here.

• Returning the current installed global version will cause problems in case of version mismatch
• Returning the passed in version may result in having two ContextManagers/TracerProviders/Propagators flying around

I think the best would be to return what one would get if they call api.trace.getTracerProvider() or api.context._getContextManager() (currently private) or api.propagation._getGlobalPropagator() (currently private). So either the global one (version matches) or Noop.

[dyladan]

Is there a reason this function should return a context manager at all? (same with other setXXX functions)

We could return void or a boolean value which indicates if registration was successful.

[Flarna]

Yes, a boolean sounds reasonable.