Re: vacuumdb with cronjob needs password since 9.0?

On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 10:56:20AM +0200, Andreas Laggner wrote:
> Hi list,
>
> i always vaccumed my postgresql automatically with crontab, because
> autovacuum is not suitable for my applications. With version 8.2 it
> works perfect for me with this command line:
>
> 00 02 * * * postgres /usr/bin/vacuumdb -d gis -z
>
> But not with 9.0, because vacuumdb now wants to have the password to
> connect to the db.

version has nothing to do with it. You had to change pg_hba.conf - most
likely you changes "trust" authentication for local connections to
something like md5 or password.
it works exactly the same way in 8.2 as in 9.0 - if connection has
"trust" authenticator - password is not necessary.

> i did not find any options to send the password with the command
> line in vacuumdb!?

best options are to either use .pgpass file (described here:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/libpq-pgpass.html)
or setup system in such way that postgres user can login locally without
password, using ident authenticator. be warned though that ident, when
not well configured, is a common source of problems - described for
example here: http://www.depesz.com/index.php/2007/10/04/ident/

Best regards,

depesz

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