Those WAL files that we're waiting to apply have to be stored
somewhere.
Thom Brown
Discussion: http://postgr.es/m/CAA-aLv4SkJRK6GGcd0Axt8kt6_eWMEbtG7f8NJpFh+rNshtdNA@mail.gmail.com
state, until the standby is promoted or triggered. After that the standby
will end recovery without further waiting.
+ WAL records must be kept on the standby until they are ready to be
+ applied. Therefore, longer delays will result in a greater accumulation
+ of WAL files, increasing disk space requirements for the standby's
+ pg_wal directory.
+
This parameter is intended for use with streaming replication deployments;
however, if the parameter is specified it will be honored in all cases