Re: [HACKERS] Postgres 6.4.2 connection problem solved

Andy Farrell <andy_farrell@itd.sterling.com> writes:
>   The machine we tried to run postgres on had the 'localhost' entry in
>   its hosts file spelled incorrectly (i.e., 'localhosts').  After
>   updating the hosts file, postgres ran fine.

That makes sense, if you were using TCP connection protocol rather
than a Unix-domain socket...

>   I would have thought we would have recieved an error other than
>   'getprotobyname failed'.

I'll say.  How the heck did it manage to get through gethostbyname()
and connect(), which are the routines that *should* have failed, and
then spit up at getprotobyname() (which should be nothing more than a
simple scan of /etc/protocols, and should certainly not care what is
in /etc/hosts)?

There is more than meets the eye here.  If you have time, would you
restore /etc/hosts to its broken condition and trace through connectDB
a little more carefully?  I would like to know what *really* went
wrong.
        regards, tom lane