Re: Fixing flat user/group files at database startup

* Tom Lane (tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us) wrote:
> Stephen Frost <sfrost(at)snowman(dot)net> writes:
> > We can't build the files very easily during WAL recovery, but
> > what about if we compare the files to the database after the normal
> > backend startup? If they're different, regenerate the files.
>
> This assumes that you can get in in the first place, which is not a good
> assumption if the flat password file is missing all your current users
> and/or passwords.

I was thinking of this just being a general 'check that the world is
sane' part of backend startup and would be automated and happen every
time, not something an admin would have to kick off or anything. The
backend looks through the WAL files and whatnot during startup too, to
check if there was a crash or something...

I guess I'm confused by 'who' needs to 'get in' to have a bit of code
run at the very end of the backend startup. Apparently I'm somewhat
naive in that area.

Stephen