Re: win32 port - Mailing list pgsql-general

hello martijn,

i know, on linux this is really a lot easier and the os is by far more advanced than windows (my opinion) - especially concerning the issue "user". but...

...i have little experience in linux and i work on windows.

...and i don't want to run postgresql as service - there are so many services in windows (xp) running - every piece of software installs some more or less dubious things in memory... - that the overall system-speed is decreasing a lot the longer you run your computer.

...and - as far as i can see - to handle users is a young and not easy to use feature in most windows-systems. as you surely know, windows was mostly a one-user-system (just root). that made life easy but very dangerous. nowadays i can create users but lots of windows-programs still rely on beeing root (beginning from installation and ending with using them). so many programs must be started - every time! - with su-user-rights. so, if you made your windows-system more secure in creating (and running your system as) a more restricted user, you always have to enter "su". this makes you wonder, if the system is then more secure any more on the one side, and after several times of working like this, you wish your system back to old-style just to have an easy way for working again on the other side.
all this is much more a problem, if ones computer/laptop is not only for oneselfe but for all the other family-members too. e.g. you make a restricted user for your children (not so much for your wife...) then you have to either run to them, every time they want to run programs to enter "su" or you give them "su"-infos - now try to decide yourselfe.

this is a problem for windows user - and for programmers on windows too.

so - back to the problem again: why couldn't there be - just for testing and programming purposes!! - a way to start postgresql even with root (and maybe - as "nobody" proposed - with that info-popup-window at the beginning as a good reminder for somebody who would really try to make this a production system)?

greetings from rainy salzburg/austria
hans


Martijn van Oosterhout schrieb:

On Sat, Jul 10, 2004 at 10:48:59AM +0200, zuhans@iname.com wrote: 

when postgresql should be running in production-systems running the 
database as root would be suicide (maybe running on most 
windows-envirionments too...). so this should be prevented.

but: if i do "just" programming and i want to run postgresql besides my 
ide to create/test my wonderful programming ideas there should be just 
the ability to run postgresql with any user - even with root. otherwise 
i must login to my computer as special postgresql-user to run postgresql 
but maybe don't have all rights to work with my ide and other 
programming-tools.   

Err? Ok, I'm not too familiar with windows but surely it's possible to
run a server as another user. For me (on Linux mind you) all such
servers are started on bootup and several of them have their own user
accounts.

Unless you are considering running postgresql from your development
environment. Surely you run the server as it's own user. The user
programs and command interface can run as any user.

Just run it as a service (i think that's the right term), you're the
admin, right?

Hope this helps,