Potential socket error due to systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer

[yuki-tei]

Hi,
Greetings. I just found by chance to find a potential risk that in Linux 9 the systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer is acitivated by default and the
socket files own by Pgpool are possibly erased since are placed under /tmp.

[root@pgsup02 ~]# systemctl status systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer
● systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer - Daily Cleanup of Temporary Directories
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer; static)
     Active: active (waiting) since Tue 2025-12-23 05:43:59 JST; 1 day 7h ago
      Until: Tue 2025-12-23 05:43:59 JST; 1 day 7h ago
    Trigger: Wed 2025-12-24 21:14:09 JST; 7h left
   Triggers: ● systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
       Docs: man:tmpfiles.d(5)
             man:systemd-tmpfiles(8)

Dec 23 05:43:59 pgsup02 systemd[1]: Started Daily Cleanup of Temporary Directories.

[root@pgsup02 ~]# systemctl list-timers systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer
NEXT                        LEFT    LAST                        PASSED  UNIT                         ACTIVATES
Wed 2025-12-24 21:14:09 JST 7h left Tue 2025-12-23 14:58:21 JST 22h ago systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service

1 timers listed.
Pass --all to see loaded but inactive timers, too.

My personal suggestion is to modify each socket_dir's default path from '/tmp' to '/var/run/pgpool', which is already the directory that PID file is placed.

Kind Regards,
Yuki Tei

[tatsuo-ishii]

The default socket directory '/tmp' is used for developers because it's convenient for Pgpool-II development (no need to create /\var/run/pgpool). They understand that socket files under /tmp may be removed by the system as you explained. PostgreSQL uses /tmp as the default socket directory too. So the current default socket directory is consistent for both Pgpool-II and PostgreSQL developers.
Most users install Pgpool-II using packages that set the default socket directory to /var/run/pgpool. So this not a problem for them.
In summary changing the default socket directory from /tmp to /var/run/pgpool will give no enhancement to either developers or users.

[yuki-tei]

Hi @tatsuo-ishii ,
Thanks for your quick reply.
Sadly some of the users, especially the beginners don't understand they should design how to maintain the socket files.
And I do recognize some problem happened because the necessity of considering socket directory slipped of their mind.
Shall we add a comment on the pgpool.conf if the change of default value is not appropriate.

Like:
Placing socket under /tmp is only for development use

Kind Regards,
Yuki Tei