This enable selection of the method repmgrd uses to check whether the upstream
node is available. Possible values are:
- "ping" (default): uses PQping() to check server availability
- "connection": executes a query on the connection to check server
availability (similar to repmgr3.x).
Previously, if PostgreSQL was not running on the node, repmgrd and
pause status were shown as "0", implying their status was known.
This brings the csv output in line with the human-readable output,
which displays "n/a" in this case.
With long-running copy operations, it's possible the connection(s) to
the primary/source server may go away for some reason, so recheck
their availability before attempting to reuse.
In a situation where only some standbys are cut off from the primary,
a failover would result in a split brain/split cluster situation,
as it's likely one of the cut-off standbys will promote itself, and
other cut-off standbys (but not all standbys) will follow it.
To prevent this happening, interrogate the other sibiling nodes to
check whether they've seen the primary within a reasonably short interval;
if this is the case, do not take any failover action.
This feature is experimental.
We only want to check the status of physical replication slots
to determine whether a streaming replication standby has become
detached and there is therefore a risk of uncontrolled WAL buildup
on the local node.
It's not feasible to second-guess the state of logical replication
slots.
Previously repmgr only emitted that if there was a timeline/LSN
mismatch, but it's useful to have confirmation of how it came
to the conclusion that rejoin will succeed.
Make sure it doesn't emit an error if executed on a node not
in recovery.
The caller should theoretically only execute it on nodes in
recovery, but there are sure to be corner cases where the node
has come out of recovery.
If, for whatever reason, repmgrd is not running on a node, but that
node qualifies as promotion candidate, failover will not take place
as that node will never promote itself.
We therefore discount nodes where repmgrd is running as promotion
candidates, which will ensure one node is always promoted.
There is a slight risk here that the node(s) where repmgrd is not running
are further ahead, leading to a timeline fork. It might be possible
to mitigate that by having the "election" leader perform the promote
(or follow) operation.
