Re: authentication

On Tue, 2004-08-24 at 03:15, tim hall wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm using PostgreSQL 7.4.3 on i386-pc-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC
> i386-linux-gcc (GCC) 3.3.4 (Debian 1:3.3.4-3).
>
> I'm fine with most things except I simply don't understand how authentication
> works - I have RTFM'd and still don't get it. I have no trouble connecting
> with the Postmaster on my local machine via command-line psql, but I'm not
> experiencing the same joy with Python or PgAccess, both return similar errors
> if I specify the Host as 'localhost':

host=localhost uses TCP/IP.  This is not the same as your local setup,
where host=<empty string>, which uses a Unix socket.  If you specify
host=<empty string> to pgaccess, it should work like your local
connection and use a Unix socket (so long as the client is on the same
machine as the postmaster).  As Tom pointed out, if you use a TCP/IP
connection, you need an ident server running on the client's machine to
support IDENT authentication.

By the way, you should not use IDENT authentication between machines
unless you fully trust the administration of the client machines; faking
ident responses is quite easy to do.

> Python:
> _pg.error: FATAL:  IDENT authentication failed for user "tim"
> and something very similar from PgAccess, which I don't appear to be able to
> cut & paste. I'm sure it's trivially simple, if anyone could point me to a
> clear explanation of how to do this on a GNU system, I'd be grateful.

--
Oliver Elphick                                          olly@lfix.co.uk
Isle of Wight                              http://www.lfix.co.uk/oliver
GPG: 1024D/A54310EA  92C8 39E7 280E 3631 3F0E  1EC0 5664 7A2F A543 10EA
                 ========================================
     "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the
      Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to
      the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before
      him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and
      a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages,
      should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting
      dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom
      that which shall not be destroyed."
                                    Daniel 7:13,14