Re: [HACKERS] Postgres 6.4.2 connection problem solved

Andy Farrell <andy_farrell(at)itd(dot)sterling(dot)com> writes:
> The machine we tried to run postgres on had the 'localhost' entry in
> its hosts file spelled incorrectly (i.e., 'localhosts'). After
> updating the hosts file, postgres ran fine.

That makes sense, if you were using TCP connection protocol rather
than a Unix-domain socket...

> I would have thought we would have recieved an error other than
> 'getprotobyname failed'.

I'll say. How the heck did it manage to get through gethostbyname()
and connect(), which are the routines that *should* have failed, and
then spit up at getprotobyname() (which should be nothing more than a
simple scan of /etc/protocols, and should certainly not care what is
in /etc/hosts)?

There is more than meets the eye here. If you have time, would you
restore /etc/hosts to its broken condition and trace through connectDB
a little more carefully? I would like to know what *really* went
wrong.

regards, tom lane