This functionality will be in 7.3, due out in a few months.
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pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org wrote:
> Wojciech Scigala (pg@wojtus.net) reports a bug with a severity of 4
> The lower the number the more severe it is.
>
> Short Description
> suggestion: file with password instead of $PGPASSWORD
>
> Long Description
> This is not a bug-report in fact, but a suggestion of a feature.
> (I couldn't find an separate email for suggestions and ideas).
> As you know, many people have trouble keeping both secure (passworded) access to PG databased while allowing some
unattendedaccess for them, for example for backing up.
> Enviroment variable $PGPASSWORD is very useful here, but sensitive data should not be passed via enviroment. The
betterway to do it is to provide a name of file which contains the password. The file's access rights (if set properly)
willprovide necessary security in an easy way. And that's what I'm suggesting - an introdution of new variable, say
$PGPASSWORD_FILEwhich will point to a file with password.
>
> Sample Code
>
>
> No file was uploaded with this report
>
>
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