PG_AUTOCTL SET NODE CANDIDATE-PRIORITY(1)

💖 pg_autoctl set node candidate-priority — a manual, but make it bestie 💖

okay so this is page PG_AUTOCTL SET NODE CANDIDATE-PRIORITY(1) from the pg_auto_failover manual, and honestly? it's giving "tiny command, big responsibility". buckle up, we're setting a node's candidate priority and the monitor is gonna hear about it. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

pg_autoctl set node candidate-priority — literally just that. the name is the name, bestie, no notes.

pg_autoctl set candidate-priority — same energy, set the candidate-priority property from the monitor. 👑

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

this command sets the pg_autoctl candidate priority for a given node:

usage: pg_autoctl set node candidate-priority  [ --pgdata ] [ --json ] [ --formation ] [ --name ] <priority: 0..100>

--pgdata      path to data directory
--formation   pg_auto_failover formation
--name        pg_auto_failover node name
--json        output data in the JSON format

so you're passing a <priority: 0..100> — that's the range, no going rogue with 9000, the vibes have limits. 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

see also pg_autoctl show settings for the full list of replication settings. that's the lore drop if you want the whole picture, iykyk. 📚

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• --pgdata — where the Postgres node you're managing locally keeps its data. it defaults to the environment variable PGDATA. and hey, use --monitor if you wanna connect to a monitor from literally anywhere, instead of the monitor URI that a local Postgres node managed with pg_autoctl is using. 🌍
• --json — output JSON formatted data. machine-readable, chef's kiss. 🤖
• --formation — show replication settings for a given formation. defaults to default. 🗂️
• --name — show replication settings for a given node, selected by name. say its name, respectfully. 🫶

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🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

• PGDATA — Postgres directory location. can be used instead of the --pgdata option. ✨
• PG_AUTOCTL_MONITOR — Postgres URI to connect to the monitor node, can be used instead of the --monitor option. 🔗
• XDG_CONFIG_HOME — the pg_autoctl command stores its configuration files in the standard place XDG_CONFIG_HOME. see the XDG Base Directory Specification. 🧚
• XDG_DATA_HOME — the pg_autoctl command stores its internal states files in the standard place XDG_DATA_HOME, which defaults to ~/.local/share. see the XDG Base Directory Specification. 🍓

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🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

setting it to 65 for node1, and look at the monitor doing the absolute most:

$ pg_autoctl set node candidate-priority --name node1 65
12:47:59 92326 INFO  Waiting for the settings to have been applied to the monitor and primary node
12:47:59 92326 INFO  New state is reported by node 1 "node1" (localhost:5501): "apply_settings"
12:47:59 92326 INFO  Setting goal state of node 1 "node1" (localhost:5501) to primary after it applied replication properties change.
12:47:59 92326 INFO  New state is reported by node 1 "node1" (localhost:5501): "primary"
65

and same thing but 50 and --json, because we love structured data in this house:

$ pg_autoctl set node candidate-priority --name node1 50 --json
12:48:05 92450 INFO  Waiting for the settings to have been applied to the monitor and primary node
12:48:05 92450 INFO  New state is reported by node 1 "node1" (localhost:5501): "apply_settings"
12:48:05 92450 INFO  Setting goal state of node 1 "node1" (localhost:5501) to primary after it applied replication properties change.
12:48:05 92450 INFO  New state is reported by node 1 "node1" (localhost:5501): "primary"
{
    "candidate-priority": 50
}

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Microsoft

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💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

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okay that's the whole page, you ate. this was version 2.2, dated Apr 07, 2025, and yes the header and footer both spell it PG_AUTOCTL S...ATE-PRIORITY(1) because the terminal was being dramatic about column width. slay, go set some priorities. 🫶💖✨