Thread: BUG #15300: "do you want the application "postgres" to acceptincoming network connections" dialog box madness

The following bug has been logged on the website:

Bug reference:      15300
Logged by:          John Daniel
Email address:      jdjddjdj@gmail.com
PostgreSQL version: Unsupported/Unknown
Operating system:   Mac 10.13.5
Description:

Hello!
I have a "allow/deny" dialog box that comes up constantly on my mac for
about 1 second and then goes away.
The dialog message box reads : "do you want the application "postgres" to
accept incoming network connections" 
This message comes up and down so quickly I had to record the screen with my
cellphone to be able to read the dialogue box

This happens hundreds of times per day. The dialog stops any and all video
playback, editing, whatever.
Since my job is Video editor, VJ, Projection specialist - this issue
effectively has ruined my computer for actual work.

At the suggestion of several online posts about this exact issue:
I have checked Settings > Users/Groups > Login Items     Postgres is not
there.
I have gone into Settings > Security & Privacy > Firewall > delete postgres
( - button)
I have deleted Davinci Resolve (mentioned in conjunction with this problem
*a lot* )

What can I do? How can I make this stop?
Will even try voodoo chants, spells and various incantations. (no blood :
)

thanks much
JD
jdjddjdj@gmail.com

Mac OS 10.13.5
Mac Mini (late 2012)
2.5 ghz i5
16gb ram
Intel graphics 4000 1536mb

=?utf-8?q?PG_Bug_reporting_form?= <noreply@postgresql.org> writes:
> I have a "allow/deny" dialog box that comes up constantly on my mac for
> about 1 second and then goes away.
> The dialog message box reads : "do you want the application "postgres" to
> accept incoming network connections"
> This message comes up and down so quickly I had to record the screen with my
> cellphone to be able to read the dialogue box

We've heard of such a thing once before:

https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/4330A48F-CB63-4F0E-99AA-DEC23EEC0E75%40gmail.com

It's far from clear what's causing it, especially if you don't have any
user-installed copy of Postgres.  (I believe some versions of Apple
Remote Desktop bundle a copy of it, though.)  It'd be interesting to
know what is in your /etc/hosts file, as discussed in the prior thread.

            regards, tom lane

[ Please keep the list cc'd for the archives' sake ]

John Daniel <jdjddjdj@gmail.com> writes:
> here is what I got in etc/hosts - this is a copy/paste from the results it
> gave me

> ##
> # Host Database
> #
> # localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
> # when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
> ##
> 127.0.0.1       localhost
> 255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
> ::1             localhost
> fe80::1%lo0     localhost

Hah!  So you do have the mysterious "fe80::1%lo0" entry.  I'd suggest
removing that line and seeing if it helps.  (If it doesn't fix it
immediately, then try rebooting.  We don't at this point know whether
a reboot is necessary, and I'm interested to find out, so please do
the experiment just like that.)

If that does fix it, but some other undesirable symptoms appear, that
would be interesting to know too.  I have not seen any problems since
removing that entry on my own Mac years ago, but that's only one data
point.  (A google search suggests that there are lots of Macs without it,
which would help explain why we hear complaints so rarely.  What's not
clear is whether Apple considers it standard or not.)


> And, yes, I have no [me] installed versions of Postgres.
> what I have possibly came in on another installer. [I am having a hard time
> parsing what it even does, much less having a need : ]

Yeah, that's what I'm supposing as well.  There's certainly no copy
of Postgres in a minimal OS X system.  But we don't know what you
have that might've bundled it.

> Is there a uninstaller?

Um, well, you'd have to find out what included Postgres and uninstall
that.  Ripping out only Postgres would presumably break that product,
which I imagine you don't want to do.  The idea here is just to stop
Postgres from listening on an externally-visible port whenever it's
fired up to deal with whatever requests it was installed to deal with.

            regards, tom lane

[ again, please keep the bugs list cc'd for the archives' sake ]

John Daniel <jdjddjdj@gmail.com> writes:
> Sooooo far, losing the "fe80::1%lo0     localhost" line in etc/hosts
> seeeeeems to have killed the problem - without a reboot.

Cool!

> I'm taking my computer home for the weekend and will let you know - but, so
> far, no more dialog boxes.
> [may add the line back in just to test it]
> It always seemed to pop up extra-lots when using Premiere and Unreal game
> engine, both of which I will be in tons this weekend

Hmm.  Some googling suggests that some Unreal Engine games use Postgres
for long-term data storage.  The behavior you're seeing could be explained
if we assume that the games are occasionally firing up Postgres for just
long enough to fetch or store something.  (That's not typical use of
Postgres, which is why the short duration of the popup windows was
surprising.)

I still have no idea *why* the fe80::1%lo0 line is in there, or whether
there's any downside to taking it out.  File dates on my own Macs suggest
that maybe Apple shipped some OSX versions years ago that had it in there
by default, and that newer versions don't have it, but system upgrades
don't replace the file if it's already present.  If so, whether you see
the problem could depend on how far back your last entirely-clean OSX
install was.  But that's mostly guesswork.

            regards, tom lane

> On Jul 26, 2018, at 16:48, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
>
> I still have no idea *why* the fe80::1%lo0 line is in there, or whether
> there's any downside to taking it out.  File dates on my own Macs suggest
> that maybe Apple shipped some OSX versions years ago that had it in there
> by default, and that newer versions don't have it, but system upgrades
> don't replace the file if it's already present.

That seems to be correct.  I'm on Sierra on a system that's been upgraded and System Migrated since 10.4, and have
neverinstalled Unreal Engine, and it's present in my /etc/hosts file. 

--
-- Christophe Pettus
   xof@thebuild.com

On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 12:42 PM, Christophe Pettus <xof@thebuild.com> wrote:
>> On Jul 26, 2018, at 16:48, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
>> I still have no idea *why* the fe80::1%lo0 line is in there, or whether
>> there's any downside to taking it out.  File dates on my own Macs suggest
>> that maybe Apple shipped some OSX versions years ago that had it in there
>> by default, and that newer versions don't have it, but system upgrades
>> don't replace the file if it's already present.
>
> That seems to be correct.  I'm on Sierra on a system that's been upgraded and System Migrated since 10.4, and have
neverinstalled Unreal Engine, and it's present in my /etc/hosts file.
 

I'm on a High Sierra (10.13) laptop that originally came with Yosemite
(10.10, current from October 2014 to September 2015), and it doesn't
have that entry in /etc/hosts.

-- 
Thomas Munro
http://www.enterprisedb.com

On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 6:40 PM, Thomas Munro
<thomas.munro@enterprisedb.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 12:42 PM, Christophe Pettus <xof@thebuild.com> wrote:
>>> On Jul 26, 2018, at 16:48, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
>>> I still have no idea *why* the fe80::1%lo0 line is in there, or whether
>>> there's any downside to taking it out.  File dates on my own Macs suggest
>>> that maybe Apple shipped some OSX versions years ago that had it in there
>>> by default, and that newer versions don't have it, but system upgrades
>>> don't replace the file if it's already present.
>>
>> That seems to be correct.  I'm on Sierra on a system that's been upgraded and System Migrated since 10.4, and have
neverinstalled Unreal Engine, and it's present in my /etc/hosts file.
 
>
> I'm on a High Sierra (10.13) laptop that originally came with Yosemite
> (10.10, current from October 2014 to September 2015), and it doesn't
> have that entry in /etc/hosts.

... and based on various random reports found via Google, it looks
like Mavericks (10.9) probably did have that entry.  So I suspect that
Yosemite (10.10) was the first not to include it, but if you upgraded
a 4+ year old system that started out on 10.9 or earlier you may still
have it.

-- 
Thomas Munro
http://www.enterprisedb.com