I searched the man page for "#" and "comment". The only mention is in this sentence:
[quote]
hostname:port:database:username:password
(You can add a reminder comment to the file by copying the line above and preceding it with #.)
[/quote]
That one sentence can easily be read as only referring to the "hostname:port..." line.
Since postgresql.conf and pg_hba.conf (I don't use pg_ident.conf) allow trailing comments, it seems reasonable that .pgpass should too, for consistency.
It also seems reasonable that hostnames in .pgpass should be case-insensitive, since they're case-insensitive everywhere else in the network world.
> But this does not: > 10.143.170.206:5432:*:11026270:Blarge # Host name: fubar
If that acted as a comment, it'd be impossible to use passwords containing '#'.
Escapes. It escapes ":" and "\", so should be able to escape "#".