Thread: pgAdmin 1.6 beta password issues

I had sent a version of this bug report to Dave Page directly a few days
ago, but let me clarify and do it through the forum. It seems that
pgAdmin 1.6 beta on windows suffers from some old password issues -- one
that is consistent, the other one I cannot reproduce reliably:

(a) the intermittent/not reproducible one -- the pgpass file gets
corrupted eventually and I start seeing lines like this:

bcde::::
alhost:5446:*:mno:vwxyz

where "abcde" is a user name and "vwxyz" is a password, so the first of
the above lines has a chopped off user name in the first position (where
the server name should be) and a bunch of blanks and the second line
looks almost OK except that the server name is chopped off. This happens
with ONLY pgAdmin (no psql) connecting from this Windows machine.

(b) connecting the last server defined in the pgAdmin tree always starts
off with an error. To reproduce: 1. start with a cleaned-up pgpass file (remove all weirdnesses as
described in (a) 2. make sure the last server in your tree has a saved password (save a
password through the server definition in pgAdmin and verify that the
pgpass file looks correct). 3. close and reopen pgAdmin 4. double click on the last node in the server tree (in order
toopen 
a connection to that server) 5. get error pop-up "An error has occurred: Error connecting to the
server: fe_sendauth: no password supplied" 6. close the error window 7. double click on same node again  8. now you get
theconnect to server dialog with the "store password" 
checkbox on (so it knows that the setting is to have it saved) but no
password in the textbox 9. type the password 10. now you can connect
As you are doing all this monitor the pgpass file and note that it is
not changing at all: the line for that server was there at step 3 and is
there after step 10 (the file timestamp does change [at step 10], but
none of its contents are changed).

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pgadmin-support-owner@postgresql.org
> [mailto:pgadmin-support-owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of
> George Pavlov
> Sent: 23 October 2006 18:31
> To: pgadmin-support@postgresql.org
> Subject: [pgadmin-support] pgAdmin 1.6 beta password issues
>
> I had sent a version of this bug report to Dave Page directly
> a few days
> ago, but let me clarify and do it through the forum. It seems that
> pgAdmin 1.6 beta on windows suffers from some old password
> issues -- one
> that is consistent, the other one I cannot reproduce reliably:
>
> (a) the intermittent/not reproducible one -- the pgpass file gets
> corrupted eventually and I start seeing lines like this:
>
> bcde::::
> alhost:5446:*:mno:vwxyz
>
> where "abcde" is a user name and "vwxyz" is a password, so
> the first of
> the above lines has a chopped off user name in the first
> position (where
> the server name should be) and a bunch of blanks and the second line
> looks almost OK except that the server name is chopped off.
> This happens
> with ONLY pgAdmin (no psql) connecting from this Windows machine.

Psql *never* writes the file so that's no real surprise. I can't
reproduce this atm, but will continue looking tomorrow.

> (b) connecting the last server defined in the pgAdmin tree
> always starts
> off with an error. To reproduce:
>   1. start with a cleaned-up pgpass file (remove all weirdnesses as
> described in (a)
>   2. make sure the last server in your tree has a saved
> password (save a
> password through the server definition in pgAdmin and verify that the
> pgpass file looks correct).
>   3. close and reopen pgAdmin
>   4. double click on the last node in the server tree (in
> order to open
> a connection to that server)
>   5. get error pop-up "An error has occurred: Error connecting to the
> server: fe_sendauth: no password supplied"
>   6. close the error window
>   7. double click on same node again
>   8. now you get the connect to server dialog with the "store
> password"
> checkbox on (so it knows that the setting is to have it saved) but no
> password in the textbox
>   9. type the password
>   10. now you can connect
> As you are doing all this monitor the pgpass file and note that it is
> not changing at all: the line for that server was there at
> step 3 and is
> there after step 10 (the file timestamp does change [at step 10], but
> none of its contents are changed).

I've found a couple of bugs here - first, the password wasn't being
saved upon the first connection, only after the smaller prompt upon the
second connection attempt. Secondly, when connecting to a host address,
rather than a hostname, the connection string was constructed such that
libpq would never read the pgpass file. I've fixed both I think, and
will mail a new .exe shortly.

Thanks, Dave.