So what I have is a postgreSQL database and I was trying to connect to
it via a Python module (PyGreSQL) from the same machine. I created a
table under the user 'postgres' called test_this.
When I started up the machine and logged on, I was the root. When I
tried to do this:
psql -U postgres -d test_this
I got:
psql: FATAL: IDENT authentication failed for user "postgres"
so I figured out I had to switch user and be postgres instead of root
with:
su postgres
then, after issuing the same command:
psql -U postgres -d test_this
I had success.
By the way, the same goes if you're trying to access a table via a
Python module. If the database (or table) is for a certain user, you
must be logged in as that user before you can access it with pg or
pgdb.
Hope that helps someone...