IDENT and IPv6 (was Re: [GENERAL] pg_hba.conf change in 7.4)

[ moved to -hackers ]

Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us> writes:
>> We are also wonder if there is a version of Ident server
>> that the PostgreSQL community knows that will work
>> with IPv6.

> That is the big question. I would think Solaris ships with one, but
> maybe not. Is 7.4/Solaris/ident not a workable combination? Folks?

Has anyone tested our Ident support under IPv6 on *any* OS?

Right offhand I don't see anything in the RFC 1413 protocol that would
break in moving from IPv4 to IPv6, but that doesn't mean there isn't
anything. One issue that catches my eye is that RFC 1413 assumes that
"port number" is a unique identifier of a connection within a particular
host; that assumption might be shaky in a system that's got multiple IP
addresses. (In particular I wonder whether IPv4 and IPv6 will share a
common port number address space on a system handling both ...)

regards, tom lane