Because walsender and normal backends share the same main loop it's
problematic to have two different flag variables, set in signal
handlers, indicating a pending configuration reload. Only certain
walsender commands reach code paths checking for the
variable (START_[LOGICAL_]REPLICATION, CREATE_REPLICATION_SLOT
... LOGICAL, notably not base backups).
This is a bug present since the introduction of walsender, but has
gotten worse in releases since then which allow walsender to do more.
A later patch, not slated for v10, will similarly unify SIGHUP
handling in other types of processes as well.
Author: Petr Jelinek, Andres Freund
Reviewed-By: Michael Paquier
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/20170423235941.qosiuoyqprq4nu7v@alap3.anarazel.de
Backpatch: 9.2-, bug is present since 9.0
6e1dd2773e