Thread: working with users

working with users

From
Sam Carleton
Date:
Ok, I am a newbie, but I simply cannot find anything in the
documentation so I hope you all are kind to me...

I have installed Postgres 7.3.4 (will reinstall once I get OpenSLL
compiled into it).  I created the postgres user, and the first
database.  As the postgress user, I am able to run psql and access
the database that I created.  I have been able to run the create
user command.

But how do I see what users exist for the database?  Because I was
the user postgres when I created the database, does that mean there
was a postgres user added during creation?  If not, what user am I
when I run psql as postgres?  If I am postgres, what is the password
to the database and how do I rest it?

Now I am not a DBA, but I have been around enough databases to know
that most of them have their own system tables.  Does postgres have
system tables?  If so, where do I find a list of them and their
usage?

Sam

Re: working with users

From
Bruno Wolff III
Date:
On Tue, Oct 14, 2003 at 21:17:16 -0400,
  Sam Carleton <postgres@linux-info.net> wrote:
>
> But how do I see what users exist for the database?  Because I was
One way is to use the \du command in psql.

> the user postgres when I created the database, does that mean there
> was a postgres user added during creation?  If not, what user am I

Yes.

> when I run psql as postgres?  If I am postgres, what is the password
> to the database and how do I rest it?

By default the access mode is trust, so there is no password needed.

> Now I am not a DBA, but I have been around enough databases to know
> that most of them have their own system tables.  Does postgres have
> system tables?  If so, where do I find a list of them and their
> usage?

Yes. They are described in the documentation under the headings
internals -> system catalogs.

You also might want to use \? to see the \ commands available in psql,
since there are a number of lookups using \ commands that might be
of interest to you.

Re: working with users

From
Michelle Murrain
Date:
On Tue, 2003-10-14 at 21:17, Sam Carleton wrote:
> But how do I see what users exist for the database?  Because I was
> the user postgres when I created the database, does that mean there
> was a postgres user added during creation?  If not, what user am I
> when I run psql as postgres?  If I am postgres, what is the password
> to the database and how do I rest it?

There is a table called pg_shadow. It has the list of users and
passwords and what they can do.

To see what you have now, use:

SELECT * from pg_shadow;
See: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.3/static/catalog-pg-shadow.html
and: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.3/interactive/user-manag.html
--
.Michelle
---------------------------
Michelle Murrain
mmurrain@dbdes.com
Database Designs Associates, Inc.
Boston   617.889.0929
Amherst  413.253.2874
Cell      413.222.6350
www.dbdes.com

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