problems with non-trust authentication methods in 7.3devel?

Version:
    7.3 devel, updated today, 7:00 am warsaw time.

Operating System:
    Linux polpot 2.2.20 #1 Sun Mar 17 11:56:15 UTC 2002 i686
    Pentium_III_(Coppermine)

Compiler and libraries:
$ ldd work/bin/postmaster  | sed 's/^.* => //' | awk '{print $1}' | xargs ls -l
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           11 lut 26 11:00 /lib/ld-linux.so.2 -> ld-2.2.5.so
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           17 lut 26 11:00 /lib/libcrypt.so.1 -> libcrypt-2.2.5.so
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           13 lut 26 11:00 /lib/libc.so.6 -> libc-2.2.5.so
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           14 lut 26 11:00 /lib/libdl.so.2 -> libdl-2.2.5.so
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           13 lut 26 11:00 /lib/libm.so.6 -> libm-2.2.5.so
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           15 lut 26 11:00 /lib/libnsl.so.1 -> libnsl-2.2.5.so
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           18 lut 21 10:43 /lib/libreadline.so.4 -> libreadline.so.4.2
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           18 lut 26 11:00 /lib/libresolv.so.2 -> libresolv-2.2.5.so
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           15 kwi 17  2001 /lib/libtinfo.so.5 -> libtinfo.so.5.2
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           13 kwi  3 10:29 /lib/libz.so.1 -> libz.so.1.1.4

$ rpm -q --queryformat "%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE} %{VENDOR}\n" glibc
gcc ncurses zlib readline
glibc-2.2.5-7 PLD
gcc-2.95.4-0.20010823.3 PLD
ncurses-5.2-27 PLD
zlib-1.1.4-2 PLD
readline-4.2a-4 PLD

database admin username:
pgdba

problem:
after setting pgdba's password using:
alter user pgdba with password 'aaa';
or
alter user pgdba with encrypted password 'aaa';
and modifying pg_hba.conf to contain:
local        all           all  xxx
host         all           all       127.0.0.1     255.255.255.255 xxx

where xxx was "password", "crypt" or "md5" - all tested,
i couldn't stard postmaster.
to start i use this script:

$ cat run.sh
#!/bin/sh
FILEDATE=`/bin/date +"%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M"`
LOGDIR="/home/users/pgdba/Logs/"
LOGFILE=$LOGDIR"/stderr.log-"$FILEDATE".log"
READABLELOG="/home/users/pgdba/stderr.log"
DATADIR='/home/users/pgdba/data/'
/bin/ln -sf $LOGFILE $READABLELOG
pg_ctl start -D "$DATADIR" -w -l "$LOGFILE"

$

upon starting it keeps on asking for password; even if the password was
100% correct:
$ ./run.sh
waiting for postmaster to start....Password:
.Password:
.Password:

logs show this:
$ cat stderr.log-2002-04-24_13-15.log
FATAL:  The database system is starting up
LOG:  database system was shut down at 2002-04-24 13:15:26 CEST
LOG:  checkpoint record is at 0/5A5508
LOG:  redo record is at 0/5A5508; undo record is at 0/0; shutdown TRUE
LOG:  next transaction id: 180; next oid: 16844
LOG:  database system is ready
FATAL:  Bad abstime external representation '"depesz'
FATAL:  Password authentication failed for user "pgdba"
LOG:  fast shutdown request
LOG:  shutting down
LOG:  database system is shut down

interesting part is that it wrote only once about authentication for
pgdba ...

is it a bug or compilation failure?

depesz

--
hubert depesz lubaczewski                          http://www.depesz.pl/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
... vows are spoken to be broken ...                 [enjoy the silence]
... words are meaningless and forgettable ...             [depeche mode]