Re: [INTERFACES] C API - Authentication Question

secret <secret(at)kearneydev(dot)com> writes:
> ... How do I tell PostgreSQL what
> username:password to use to authenticate myself to the database?

PQsetdbLogin() or PQconnectdb(). Alternatively you can pass them in
as values of environment variables PGUSER and PGPASSWORD. I don't
much like keeping a password in an environment variable on security
grounds, but this would work if you want to use some client program
that offers no convenient way to enter id/password.

It looks like the documentation is seriously lacking in this area:
the current libpq man page doesn't describe PQconnectdb() at all,
and the possibility to pass in a password via PGPASSWORD isn't mentioned
there either. You'll get along with PostgreSQL a lot better if you
don't mind looking at code when you can't find something in the docs :-(

BTW you should also consider Kerberos authentication --- much more
secure than passing cleartext or trivially-encrypted passwords around
the net.

regards, tom lane