On Tue, Jun 23, 2026, at 7:39 AM, Amit Kapila wrote: > > If we go by the definition of Client/Server from the docs at > doc/src/sgml/reference.sgml: > - Client: "The common feature of these applications is that they can > be run on any host, independent of where the database server resides." > - Server: "These commands can only be run usefully on the host where > the database server resides." > > So the documented discriminator is locality of the data directory, not > libpq. By that rule pg_createsubscriber is a server application as > it takes -D pgdata of the target, and requires that target (a physical > standby) to run recovery on it. BTW, pg_rewind also takes a remote > --source-server libpq connection to a live server, yet it's a server > app, because it rewrites a local data directory. So I think "makes a > libpq connection" is not the right discriminator; if it were, > pg_rewind would have to move too. >
That's my interpretation too. BTW we had this discussion during development [1]. [1] https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/aabc91d2-505b-4412-af08-7dae2df1d437%40app.fastmail.com -- Euler Taveira EDB https://www.enterprisedb.com/
