Previously, repmgr was using a very simple ad-hoc string-based parser,
which had various limitations and allowed configuration files to be
created in a way which could cause confusion and/or unexpected
behaviour.
For example, it accepted strings enclosed in single quotes, but treated
strings enclosed in double quotes literally. A node_name defined thusly:
node_name="somenode"
would result in the literal value '"somenode"' being used, which could
lead to unobvious errors along the lines of:
no record found for ""somenode""
The configuration file parser has been adapted from the one used by
PostgreSQL itself, so behaves more-or-less identically (though some
functions such as file inclusion are not supported in repmgr).
This makes configuration parsing more robust and consistent;
additionally, error reporting will be more precise.
Note this does mean that some repmgr.conf items previously accepted
as valid by repmgr will now be rejected; in particular this includes
strings containing spaces which are not enclosed in single quotes.
This brings the repmgr documentation build system in line with that
used by the main PostgreSQL project, and removed the restriction
that documentation must be built against PostgreSQL 9.6 or earlier.
Main formatting changes are:
- convert empty-element tags (mainly <xref/>)
- put <indexterm> sections in the correct location
- correct usage of various entities.
