Re: Parsing of pg_hba.conf and authentication inconsistencies

Hello,

On Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:37:25 +0200 Magnus Hagander wrote:

> Tom Lane wrote:
> > Magnus Hagander <magnus(at)hagander(dot)net> writes:
>
> > We could catch some simple problems at file load time, perhaps,
> > but those usually aren't the ones that cause trouble for people.
>
> It would catch things like typos, invalid CIDR address/mask and
> specifying an auth method that doesn't exist. This is the far most
> common errors I've seen - which ones are you referring to?

it may not be the far most common error but of course it's a big
problem.

For the DBA: if the configfile is in a version control system you
first have to edit the file again, search the error, submit the file and
then restart the DB - if you got the syntax error during a database
restart you are cursing all the time because the database is offline
right now.

For an newbie: as mentioned before, this guy doesn't even know where to
look for an error, but the database is offline. "Stupid Postgres, i
want something else which is working."

Of course a syntax check before or on startup cannot check for all
errors, especially not for logic errors but if we can exclude any
syntax error that would be a big help. For myself i don't care which
tool is doing the check as long as it's possible to check the config at
all.

Kind regards

--
Andreas 'ads' Scherbaum
German PostgreSQL User Group