Re: documentation issue: listen_addresses does NOT take a comma-separated list of host names

On Sun, Mar 3, 2024, at 4:24 PM, PG Doc comments form wrote:
> listen_addresses (string)
>
> Specifies the TCP/IP address(es) on which the server is to listen for
> connections from client applications. The value takes the form of a
> comma-separated list of host names and/or numeric IP addresses. (...)
> </quote>
> I tried different versions of names and IPs, quoted in single, double and no
> quotes at all, comma separated between quotes and inside, like
> <quote>
> listen_addresses = '192.168.32.3','127.0.0.1'
> # or
> listen_addresses = '192.168.32.3,127.0.0.1'
> </quote>

Any parameter that has a string type are enclosed in single quotes [1]. Hence,
a list of addresses consists of

listen_addresses = 'W, X, Y, Z'

> but `sudo journalctl -eb -u postgresql(at)14-main(dot)service -o cat`
> gives me:
> <quote>
> Reloading PostgreSQL Cluster 14-main...
> Error: invalid line 61 in /etc/postgresql/14/main/postgresql.conf:
> listen_addresses = "192.168.32.3","127.0.0.1"
> postgresql(at)14-main(dot)service: Control process exited, code=exited,
> status=1/FAILURE

You use double quotes for each individual address.

> Reload failed for PostgreSQL Cluster 14-main.
> Reloading PostgreSQL Cluster 14-main...
> Error: invalid line 61 in /etc/postgresql/14/main/postgresql.conf:
> listen_addresses = "192.168.32.3,127.0.0.1"
> postgresql(at)14-main(dot)service: Control process exited, code=exited,
> status=1/FAILURE

You are using double quotes. It would work if you just replaced it with single
quotes.

> Reload failed for PostgreSQL Cluster 14-main.
> Reloading PostgreSQL Cluster 14-main...
> Error: invalid line 61 in /etc/postgresql/14/main/postgresql.conf:
> listen_addresses = '192.168.32.3','127.0.0.1'
> postgresql(at)14-main(dot)service: Control process exited, code=exited,
> status=1/FAILURE

Again, you are using multiple strings separated by comma instead of just
one string.

> Reload failed for PostgreSQL Cluster 14-main.
> </quote>
>
> So I tried to follow the otherwise seen pattern and wrote into
> postgresql.conf:
> <quote>
> listen_addresses = '192.168.32.3'
> listen_addresses = '127.0.0.1'
> </quote>
> which worked.

It worked but it is just listening to 127.0.0.1.

$ tail -n 2 $PGDATA/postgresql.conf
listen_addresses = '192.168.32.3'
listen_addresses = '127.0.0.1'
$ pg_ctl start
waiting for server to start....2024-03-04 13:50:37.167 -03 [16738] LOG: redirecting log output to logging collector process
2024-03-04 13:50:37.167 -03 [16738] HINT: Future log output will appear in directory "log".
done
server started
$ postgres -C listen_addresses
127.0.0.1

[1] https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/runtime-config-connection.html

--
Euler Taveira
EDB https://www.enterprisedb.com/