Re: pg_role vs. pg_shadow or pg_user

The 8.1 version of the docu explicitly outlined the migration, the 9.1 version no longer covers the way things were before 8.1. In the meantime I also found <http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/interactive/role-membership.html> which cleared things up exhaustively and by example.

Alex

Am 14.03.2012 um 22:52 schrieb Tom Lane:

> Alexander Reichstadt <lxr(at)mac(dot)com> writes:
>> in the documentation of 8.1 the concept of roles is outlined compared
>> to users and groups at
>> <http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/static/user-manag.html>.
>
> Um ... why are you reading 8.1 documentation while running 9.1? There
> are likely to be some obsolete things in there.
>
>> I also read today that pg_shadow is the real table containing the
>> users as opposed to pg_user which is only a view and one never
>> displaying anything but **** for the password. I don't have the link
>> where that was,
>
> Whereever it was, it was even more obsolete than the 8.1 docs.
> pg_shadow has been a view (on pg_authid) for quite a while now.
> Try "\d+ pg_shadow" in psql.
>
> The reason this is such a mess is that we've changed the catalog
> representation several times, each time leaving behind a view that
> was meant to emulate the old catalog. For some time now, pg_authid
> has been the ground truth, but it stores entries for both login and
> non-login roles, which more or less correspond to what used to be
> users and groups. pg_roles is the only non-protected view that
> shows you all the entries.
>
> regards, tom lane
>
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