pg_standby: Unremovable Trigger File

I've been testing pg_standby as a helper application for a warm
standby setup. So far, so good. When the environment is controlled
and everything happens as expected, I'm able to operate a basic
primary/standby setup. (This is all using 8.2.3 on Solaris x86, btw.)

One thing I noticed in early testing, though, was the scenario where
the trigger file can't be removed by pg_standby. I touched a trigger
file as root, which made it unremovable by postgres. So this tripped
the relevant error condition in pg_standby.

I had a little difficulty understanding in what state this left the
recovery process, and I'm not helping myself much by reading the
code. Doesn't the non-zero exit from CheckForExternalTrigger mean
that pg_standby will be signaling to the standby server a file-not-
found scenario?

--
Thomas F. O'Connell

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