Thread: Ident authentication failed

Ident authentication failed

From

Lucky Leavell

Date:

03 January 2006, 02:21:29

v8.0.3
OS: SuSE 10.0 Pro

I am new to PostgreSQL but fairly familiar with other RDBMS' such as
Ingres, Informix and MySQL.

I am attempting to switch from using MySQL to PostgreSQL with postfix. I
have created the postfix user using createuser with a password but denying
the ability to create databases or other users. However when I attempt to
login even using psql:

    psql -W -U postfix

it prompts me for the password and I enter the one that user was created
with. The resulting error is:

    psql: FATAL: Ident authentication failed for user 'postfix'

I know I must be missing something simple but I cannot find it in the docs
or FAQs. Please point me in the right direction.

Thank you,
Lucky

Re: Ident authentication failed

From

Madison Kelly

Date:

03 January 2006, 03:10:16

Lucky Leavell wrote:
> v8.0.3
> OS: SuSE 10.0 Pro
>
> I am new to PostgreSQL but fairly familiar with other RDBMS' such as
> Ingres, Informix and MySQL.
>
> I am attempting to switch from using MySQL to PostgreSQL with postfix. I
> have created the postfix user using createuser with a password but denying
> the ability to create databases or other users. However when I attempt to
> login even using psql:
>
>     psql -W -U postfix
>
> it prompts me for the password and I enter the one that user was created
> with. The resulting error is:
>
>     psql: FATAL: Ident authentication failed for user 'postfix'
>
> I know I must be missing something simple but I cannot find it in the docs
> or FAQs. Please point me in the right direction.
>
> Thank you,
> Lucky

By default, PostgreSQL won't let you connect unless your system user
account matches the user account in postgres... You can either 'su' to
the 'postfix' user or edit your 'pg_hba.conf' file to have the line:

local all all      trust

Usually there will already be the line:

local all all      ident sameuser

Be aware though that this essentially opens postgres access to anyone
with shell access. There are a few other ways to deal with them but the
PostgreSQL docs do a better job at explaining it than I can.

HTH!

Madison

--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
           Madison Kelly (Digimer)
    TLE-BU; The Linux Experience, Back Up
Main Project Page:  http://tle-bu.org
Community Forum:    http://forum.tle-bu.org
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Re: Ident authentication failed

From

Lucky Leavell

Date:

03 January 2006, 03:30:37


On Mon, 2 Jan 2006, Madison Kelly wrote:

> Lucky Leavell wrote:
> > v8.0.3
> > OS: SuSE 10.0 Pro
> >
> > I am new to PostgreSQL but fairly familiar with other RDBMS' such as Ingres,
> > Informix and MySQL.
> >
> > I am attempting to switch from using MySQL to PostgreSQL with postfix. I
> > have created the postfix user using createuser with a password but denying
> > the ability to create databases or other users. However when I attempt to
> > login even using psql:
> >
> >  psql -W -U postfix
> >
> > it prompts me for the password and I enter the one that user was created
> > with. The resulting error is:
> >
> >  psql: FATAL: Ident authentication failed for user 'postfix'
> >
> > I know I must be missing something simple but I cannot find it in the docs
> > or FAQs. Please point me in the right direction.
> >
> > Thank you,
> > Lucky
>
> By default, PostgreSQL won't let you connect unless your system user account
> matches the user account in postgres... You can either 'su' to the 'postfix'
> user or edit your 'pg_hba.conf' file to have the line:
>
> local all all      trust
>
> Usually there will already be the line:
>
> local all all      ident sameuser
>
> Be aware though that this essentially opens postgres access to anyone with
> shell access. There are a few other ways to deal with them but the PostgreSQL
> docs do a better job at explaining it than I can.
>
I tried your suggestion except substituting "password" for "trust" and
it seems to work without giving the farm away!

Many thanks,
Lucky