Andres Freund <andres@2ndquadrant.com> writes:
> Why not add a pg_ctl subcommand for that? For me that sounds like a good place
> for it...
I think that's a bad fit, because every other pg_ctl subcommand requires
access to the data directory. It would be very confusing if this one
subcommand worked remotely when the others didn't.
There was also some discussion of wedging it into psql, which would at
least have the advantage that it'd typically be installed on the right
side of the client/server divide. But I still think "wedging into" is
the appropriate verb there: psql is a tool for making a connection and
executing some SQL commands, and "ping" is not that.
Yeah, I know a whole new executable is kind of a pain, and the amount of
infrastructure and added maintenance seems a bit high compared to what
this does. But a lot of the programs in src/bin/scripts are not much
bigger. (In fact that might be the best place for this.)
regards, tom lane