Re: Ident authentication failed

On Mon, 2 Jan 2006, Madison Kelly wrote:

> Lucky Leavell wrote:
> > v8.0.3
> > OS: SuSE 10.0 Pro
> >
> > I am new to PostgreSQL but fairly familiar with other RDBMS' such as Ingres,
> > Informix and MySQL.
> >
> > I am attempting to switch from using MySQL to PostgreSQL with postfix. I
> > have created the postfix user using createuser with a password but denying
> > the ability to create databases or other users. However when I attempt to
> > login even using psql:
> >
> > psql -W -U postfix
> >
> > it prompts me for the password and I enter the one that user was created
> > with. The resulting error is:
> >
> > psql: FATAL: Ident authentication failed for user 'postfix'
> >
> > I know I must be missing something simple but I cannot find it in the docs
> > or FAQs. Please point me in the right direction.
> >
> > Thank you,
> > Lucky
>
> By default, PostgreSQL won't let you connect unless your system user account
> matches the user account in postgres... You can either 'su' to the 'postfix'
> user or edit your 'pg_hba.conf' file to have the line:
>
> local all all trust
>
> Usually there will already be the line:
>
> local all all ident sameuser
>
> Be aware though that this essentially opens postgres access to anyone with
> shell access. There are a few other ways to deal with them but the PostgreSQL
> docs do a better job at explaining it than I can.
>
I tried your suggestion except substituting "password" for "trust" and
it seems to work without giving the farm away!

Many thanks,
Lucky