Thread: Postgres 8.1 hangs at boot time due to password authentication for user postgres.

Dear PostgreSQL Team,

after upgrading from PostgreSQL 7.4 to 8.1 on my Debian PC (Testing Release)
PostgreSQL hangs at boot time.
This is because user "postgres" was set to password authentication in my
database.
The function "/usr/bin/pg_ctlcluster - cluster_port_ready" tries to
connect to
the database using "psql" which prompts for the password then. But the
password
cannot be entered at boot time.
Changing user "postgres" to "ident" authentification removes the
problem. But
in my opinion it should be possible to use password authentication.

Regards
Rolf

Rolf Gross wrote:

> after upgrading from PostgreSQL 7.4 to 8.1 on my Debian PC (Testing
> Release) PostgreSQL hangs at boot time.  This is because user
> "postgres" was set to password authentication in my database.  The
> function "/usr/bin/pg_ctlcluster - cluster_port_ready" tries to
> connect to the database using "psql" which prompts for the password
> then. But the password cannot be entered at boot time.  Changing user
> "postgres" to "ident" authentification removes the problem. But in my
> opinion it should be possible to use password authentication.

This pg_ctlcluster program seems to be Debian-specific, so please report
issues with it to the Debian team.  (I don't even know what it's
supposed to do.)

Anyway, with password authentication there's no way to connect without a
password.  I don't think there's a way around that.  You could set the
authentication to ident for the specific database and user that
pg_ctlcluster is using; or you could set a .pgpass file.

--
Alvaro Herrera                                http://www.CommandPrompt.com/
The PostgreSQL Company - Command Prompt, Inc.