Re: initdb auth method option and "ident sameuser"

Bernd Helmle <bernd(at)oopsware(dot)de> writes:
> I recently got a complaint from an OpenSuSE user, which had problems using
> PostgreSQL 8.4 installed by a broken RPM from build service. The init
> script used initdb --auth="ident sameuser" accidentally, to initialize the
> cluster (this seems to be the practice in older versions before, too). This
> caused the whole postgres startup to fail, since 8.4 refuses to accept such
> a line anymore.

> Beside the fact that this is primarily the packagers fault, I wonder wether
> we should install an additional check in initdb.c against the requested
> authmethod to check against such a usage. It seems too easy to break an
> installation with a formerly common usage practice.

It doesn't seem very practical to have initdb validate that argument
fully. I think partial validation is worse than none, so I'd prefer
to leave it alone.

In any case, having initdb error out there wouldn't be a lot better from
the user's standpoint than having the initdb succeed and then startup
fail. In a lot of cases, people are going to be inserting custom
pg_hba.conf files anyhow as soon as they've finished initdb; in those
cases, having a failure there would just be useless pedantry.

regards, tom lane