Re: Authenticating user `postgres'

Arcady Genkin <a(dot)genkin(at)utoronto(dot)ca> writes:
> The problem I'm having is that I want local UNIX user `postgres', who
> is the database superuser, to be able to connect to any database
> without a password.

You can't make postgres' life any easier than you make it for anyone
else coming from the same machine, because the authentication mechanism
is chosen on the basis of the client machine and (possibly) the target
database --- not on the basis of who the user is. Offhand I'd think it
foolish to make it easier to get into the superuser account than regular
accounts anyway.

One possibility is to run an IDENT daemon and allow ident-authenticated
connections from 127.0.0.1. Then "pg_dumpall -h localhost" would work
without a password. Trusting other people's IDENT daemons is widely
considered a bad idea, but I see no reason not to trust your own.

regards, tom lane