[pgpool-hackers: 584] Proposal: change format of pgpool_status

[Tatsuo Ishii]

Hi pgpool hackers,

Currently pgpool-II uses binary 512-byte-long format pgpool_status.
If we could have the file in a text format, there's some values for
users:

1) easy to check contents of pgpool_status.

2) create/modify pgpool_status by ordinary text editor.

Especially #2 is important. If we have a fresh pgpool-II cluster and
there are many standby servers, typical operation would be as follows:

1) start pgpool-II
2) wait for health check process detects standbys are dead
3) start online recovery for each standby node one by one

#2 could take long time like tens of minutes if we set health check
retries. The only workaround is temporary disabling retry and
enabling later on. This is ugly. If we could create pgpool_status with
down standby status beforehand, #2 will be instant.

Comments and/or suggestions are welcome.

Best regards,
--
Tatsuo Ishii
SRA OSS, Inc. Japan
English: http://www.sraoss.co.jp/index_en.php
Japanese:http://www.sraoss.co.jp