connect to psql without passwd

I'm writing a shell script to run analyze and other jobs as use
postgres, having issues passing the passwd  in psql is always asking for
password, I'm using .pgpass file as argument in psql ( I understood
PGPASS is depreciated). My .pgpass file contains only the passwd string
not the full connection string9 hostname, port etc) since this is local
connection , but is  always asking for passwd, using  :PG ver 8.3, RH 5,
The script contains something like :
Home=
PSQL=
PGDATA=
 export HOME, PSQL, PGDATA etc
(cat $HOME/.pgpass
 cat << EOF
REINDEX database test
;
EOF
) | $PSQL -U postgres -d test  > /var/lib/pgsql//reindex.log

thank you
Isabella