I've just realized that one of the confusing things about this debate
is that the recovery_connections parameter is very confusingly named.
It might have been okay when HS existed in isolation, but with SR in the
mix, it's not at all clear that the parameter refers to client
connections made to a standby server, and not to replication connections
made from a standby to its master. It is easy to think that this is a
parameter that needs to be turned on in the master to allow standby
slaves to connect to it.
Another problem is that it looks more like an integer parameter
(ie, maximum number of such connections) than a boolean.
I think a different name would help. The best idea I can come up with
on the spur of the moment is "allow_standby_queries", but I'm not sure
that can't be improved on. Comments?
regards, tom lane