PG_AUTOCTL SHOW SETTINGS(1)

📦
version 2.2 · 6 versions
, in debian trixie, ubuntu questing

✨ pg_autoctl show settings ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the pg_autoctl show settings page from the pg_auto_failover manual, section 1 💖 this one's a lil peek behind the curtain at your replication settings, and honestly? it's giving main character energy for your monitor. let's get into it 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

pg_autoctl show settings — pg_autoctl show settings

pg_autoctl show settings — Print replication settings for a formation from the monitor 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

so this command lets you review all the replication settings of a given formation (and yeah, it defaults to 'default' like always, no surprises there):

usage: pg_autoctl show settings  [ --pgdata ] [ --json ] [ --formation ]

--pgdata      path to data directory
--monitor     pg_auto_failover Monitor Postgres URL
--json        output data in the JSON format
--formation   pg_auto_failover formation

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

also see pg_autoctl get formation settings, which is literally a synonym, same vibes, different name, iykyk ✨

the output contains setting and values that apply at different contexts, and here's what that looks like with a formation of four nodes, where node_4 is not participating in the replication quorum and also not a candidate for failover:

$ pg_autoctl show settings
   Context |    Name |                   Setting | Value
 ----------+---------+---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------
 formation | default |      number_sync_standbys | 1
   primary |  node_1 | synchronous_standby_names | 'ANY 1 (pgautofailover_standby_3, pgautofailover_standby_2)'
      node |  node_1 |        replication quorum | true
      node |  node_2 |        replication quorum | true
      node |  node_3 |        replication quorum | true
      node |  node_4 |        replication quorum | false
      node |  node_1 |        candidate priority | 50
      node |  node_2 |        candidate priority | 50
      node |  node_3 |        candidate priority | 50
      node |  node_4 |        candidate priority | 0

three replication settings context are listed, and yes there are exactly three, no more no less:

  1. the "formation" context contains a single entry — the value of number_sync_standbys for the target formation 👑
  2. the "primary" context contains one entry per group of Postgres nodes in the formation, and shows the current value of the synchronous_standby_names Postgres setting as computed by the monitor. it should match what's currently set on the primary node — unless while applying a change, as shown by the primary being in the APPLY_SETTING state 🙈
  3. the "node" context contains two entry per nodes: one line shows the replication quorum setting of nodes, and another line shows the candidate priority of nodes 🎀

so yeah, this command gives an overview of all the settings that apply to the current formation. obsessed.

💖 OPTIONS 💖

  • --pgdata — location of the Postgres node being managed locally. defaults to the environment variable PGDATA. use --monitor to connect to a monitor from anywhere, rather than the monitor URI used by a local Postgres node managed with pg_autoctl 🌈
  • --monitor — Postgres URI used to connect to the monitor. must use the autoctl_node username and target the pg_auto_failover database name. it is possible to show the Postgres URI from the monitor node using the command pg_autoctl show uri 👀

defaults to the value of the environment variable PG_AUTOCTL_MONITOR.

  • --formation — show the current replication settings for the given formation. defaults to the default formation ✨
  • --json — output a JSON formatted data instead of a table formatted list 🧚

🌈 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 📁

⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

$ pg_autoctl show settings
     Context |    Name |                   Setting | Value
   ----------+---------+---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------
   formation | default |      number_sync_standbys | 1
     primary |   node1 | synchronous_standby_names | 'ANY 1 (pgautofailover_standby_2, pgautofailover_standby_3)'
        node |   node1 |        candidate priority | 50
        node |   node2 |        candidate priority | 50
        node |   node3 |        candidate priority | 50
        node |   node1 |        replication quorum | true
        node |   node2 |        replication quorum | true
        node |   node3 |        replication quorum | true

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Microsoft

Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

and that's a wrap bestie 🎀 this was version 2.2, dated Apr 07, 2025, brought to you by the pg_auto_failover girlies — go check your settings, they're probably slaying 💅✨

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