Hello,

Please consider adding support for rotating SSL certificates on reloading pgpool2 (i.e., sending SIGHUP to the pgpool parent), so that certificate rotations do not require a full service restart. PostgreSQL can pick up new certificates on reload/SIGHUP; pgpool currently requires a restart, which causes connection disruptions.

Current behavior:

Replace certificate/key files used by pgpool (e.g., server.crt, server.key, related CA chain).
Run systemctl reload pgpool2 (send SIGHUP to the pgpool parent).
Observations: Existing and new client connections continue to present the old certificate. Only systemctl restart pgpool2 applies the new certs (causing connection interruptions).

Expected behavior:

After systemctl reload pgpool2 / SIGHUP, pgpool should re-read SSL-related configuration (server cert, private key, chain/CA, CRL if configured) and use them for new client connections, without requiring a full restart.
Existing connections can continue with the old context; only new handshakes should use the updated materials.
If reload fails, log a clear error and keep using the previous context to avoid breaking clients.
Consider parity with PostgreSQL’s SIGHUP behavior for certificate reloads where feasible.

Regards,

Bob Ross