[plug] database authentication

[Craig Ringer]

sol wrote:
> Hi there,
> 
> Are there any database (esp. PostgreSQL) people out there? I'm having 
> trouble doing something really simple with my Postgresql 7.2 db. I'm 
> trying to plug (no pun intended) the database into other applications 
> using unix-odbc but just can't get it right. But it's definitely 
> something to do with the way I've established users in Postgres, not the 
> config settings for unix-odbc.

Heh. Ran into this one a couple of months ago and spent some time 
banging my head against a wall. Somewhere in the UNIX-ODBC docs (I 
think) it says "unix-odbc does not support crypt passwords".

So in hba.conf you need to make sure that any db's and users you want to 
be able to work with under unix-odbc need to use plaintext passwords or 
some other auth scheme than crypt, like "peer sameuser" for local where 
unix username == postgresql username.

---- pg_hba.conf excerpt --
# UNIXODBC doesn't support crypt so we use unenctrypted loopback conns
# for select databases
host     dsmail        127.0.0.1         255.0.0.0        password
host       craig          127.0.0.1         255.0.0.0       password
---- end excerpt ---

forces use of plaintext passwords on the loopback interface only where 
'ident sameuser' is not useable. I seem to remember that unix-odbc 
doesn't support auth with postgres using "peer sameuser" either but I'm 
not sure about that, its been a while since I messed with it. Anyway 
this should take care of the problem.

-- 
Craig Ringer
GPG Key Fingerprint: AF1C ABFE 7E64 E9C8 FC27  C16E D3CE CDC0 0E93 380D
	-- if it ain't broke, add features 'till it is. (or:)
	while (! broken) { features ++ ; broken = isBroken(features) }