.\" Copyright 2004-2007 by PgPool Global Development Group
.\" This man page is subject to the same license as the rest of pgpool.
.\"
.TH PGPOOL 8 "27 Jan 2006"
.\" Please adjust this date whenever revising the manpage.
.SH NAME
pgpool \- PostgreSQL connection pool daemon
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBpgpool\fR [ \fB\-d\fR ] [ \fB\-f\fR \fIfile\fR ] [ \fB\-n\fR ] [ \fB\-h\fR ]
.LP
\fBpgpool\fR [ \fB\-d\fR ] [ \fB\-f\fR \fIfile\fR ] [ \fB\-m\fR \fImode\fR ] \fBstop\fR
.LP
\fBpgpool\fR [ \fB\-d\fR ] [ \fB\-f\fR \fIfile\fR ] [ \fB\-m\fR \fImode\fR ] [ \fB-s\fR \fBm\fR[\fBaster\fR] | \fBs\fR[\fBecondary\fR] ] \fBswitch\fR
.SH DESCRIPTION
\fBpgpool\fR is a connection pool server for PostgreSQL.
\fBpgpool\fR runs between PostgreSQL's client and server.
Any PostgreSQL client can connect to \fBpgpool\fR as if it's a real PostgreSQL server.
\fBpgpool\fR caches the connection to the PostgreSQL server to reduce the overhead
involved in establishing the connection to it.  \fBpgpool\fR can also be
used with two PostgreSQL servers for fail over purposes.  If the first
server goes down, \fBpgpool\fR will automatically switch to the secondary server.
.P
When started without arguments, \fBpgpool\fR starts as a daemon in the background.
When started with the argument \fBstop\fR, \fBpgpool\fR is shut down.
With the argument \fBswitch\fR, \fBpgpool\fR will switch between master
and secondary servers.  If only one server is configured, this will only
restart the child processes.
.P
\fBpgpool\fR is typically started and stopped via system initialization scripts.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
\fB\-d\fR
Print lots of debug messages.
.TP
\fB\-f\fR \fIpath\fR
Sets the path to the configuration file (default: \fI@sysconfdir@/pgpool.conf\fR).
.TP
\fB\-h\fR
Print a help message and exit.
.TP
\fB\-m\fR \fImode\fR
Shutdown mode: smart, fast, or immediate.
.TP
\fB\-n\fR
Do not start as daemon.  Error messages go to stdout or stderr.  Thus
you could play with utilities such as \fBlogger\fR(1) and
\fBrotatelogs\fR(8).
You need to run in background explicitly if you use this option.
.TP
\fB-s\fR \fBm\fR[\fBaster\fR] | \fBs\fR[\fBecondary\fR]
Determines which server to switch away from.  If this option is omitted,
the master goes down.
.SH FILES
.TP
\fI@sysconfdir@/pgpool.conf\fR
Default configuration file
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR logger (1),
.BR postmaster (1),
.BR rotatelogs (8)
.PP
Additional information can be found in the \fBpgpool\fR \fIREADME\fR file.