Thread: User identification (external/internal)

Hello

I have a database with aproximately 800 users. About
30% of them change each year. The users are divided
into group an each group has different per user
information. How fast is using authentication with
pgsql using a password file? Is it possible to
tie some data to an user or group? If the usernames
are in pg_shadow then there is no problem with
groups but what if I use a separate password file?
Or is the best aprouch to do the authentication
in the application (eg SELECT 1 FROM table WHERE
uname='username' AND pwd='password';)?

- Einar Karttunen