authentication and usermanagement

Hi,

I want to setup PostgreSQL on a machine with many users, and to restrict
access to the database I set the authtype in pg_hba.conf for local users
to "password", and set $PGDATA/passwords as the password-file.

Now I'm pretty confused:

When I create a user with "createuser", I have to give her a password with
"pg_passwd $PGDATA/passwords". Then she can connect to the db. (But she
doesn't get listed in $PGDATA/global/pg_pwd.)

When I create her with "createuser -P", I get asked for a password, but
that password will not be stored in $PGDATA/passwords, instead I get an
entry in $PGDATA/global/pg_pwd, with the username, several "x"s and the
password in clear text. But I still have to give her a password with
"pg_passwd $PGDATA/passwords" so that she can connect.

So I want to know what $PGDATA/global/pg_pwd is good for, and why I have
to still give her a password, although she was created with "createuser
-P".

regards,
le

--
Lukas Ertl                          eMail: l.ertl@univie.ac.at
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