Re: problem with the postgres db user

Kasia Tuszynska <ktuszynska(at)esri(dot)com> writes:
> If I am logged in as anyone else and try: pgsql -U postgres and use the password - I get the following error:
> Psql: FATAL: Ident authentication failed for user "postgers"

That's what's supposed to happen, if you're using ident authentication.
If you want to be able to log in under someone else's name, you need to
use some other auth method, such as md5.

> pg_hba.conf, has no restriction on the postgres user, if fact it has no restriction on anyone:
> host all all 0.0.0.0/0 md5

It is not using that pg_hba entry; if it were, you'd not be getting that
error message. Likely theories are that the connection is coming in via
Unix socket not TCP (you need to fix the "local" line), or that you
forgot to SIGHUP the postmaster after editing the file, or that there's
some earlier entry in the file that's capturing these connection
attempts.

regards, tom lane