> May Tom (or anyone) correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is what's
> going on:
>
> The contents of the pg_shadow table are written through to a file on disk
> called pg_pwd, so all the backends can easily access it. However, this
> write through is not automatic. The create user and alter user commands
> take care of that, but if you update pg_shadow directly, your changes will
> not be seen by currently active backends.
Your changes never get to the file, ever, not just current backends.
CREATE USER sql command updates the file, but an UPDATE on pg_shadow
does not.
We use a file because the postmaster does the password authentication,
and we don't have any database connection the postmaster.
--
Bruce Momjian | http://www.op.net/~candle
maillist@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 853-3000
+ If your life is a hard drive, | 830 Blythe Avenue
+ Christ can be your backup. | Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026
