Re: invalid connection type "listen_addresses='*'

From: pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org [mailto:pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org] On Behalf Of Aram Fingal
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2014 4:40 PM
To: Postgres-General General
Subject: [GENERAL] invalid connection type "listen_addresses='*'

I just tried to set up a PostgreSQL server on an existing instillation of Ubuntu 13.10 server but I am getting an error trying to start the server and I am not finding anything relevant to the error searching the web.

Here's what I did to install:

$ sudo apt-get install postgresql
$ sudo apt-get install postgresql-contrib

I set a password for the postgres user and edited the pg_hba.conf file as follows:

<skipping a bunch of comments>

# Put your actual configuration here
# ----------------------------------
#
# If you want to allow non-local connections, you need to add more
# "host" records.  In that case you will also need to make PostgreSQL
# listen on a non-local interface via the listen_addresses
# configuration parameter, or via the -i or -h command line switches.

listen_addresses='*'

# DO NOT DISABLE!
# If you change this first entry you will need to make sure that the
# database superuser can access the database using some other method.
# Noninteractive access to all databases is required during automatic
# maintenance (custom daily cronjobs, replication, and similar tasks).
#
# Database administrative login by Unix domain socket
local   all             postgres                                peer

# TYPE  DATABASE        USER            ADDRESS                 METHOD

# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local   all             all                                     peer
# IPv4 local connections:
host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            md5
host    all             all             all             md5

# IPv6 local connections:
host    all             all             ::1/128                 md5
# Allow replication connections from localhost, by a user with the
# replication privilege.
#local   replication     postgres                                peer
#host    replication     postgres        127.0.0.1/32            md5
#host    replication     postgres        ::1/128                 md5

Then I try to restart the server:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql restart
 * Restarting PostgreSQL 9.1 database server                                                                                                                                                 * The PostgreSQL server failed to start. Please check the log output:
2014-07-10 16:34:39 EDT LOG:  invalid connection type "listen_addresses='*'"
2014-07-10 16:34:39 EDT CONTEXT:  line 75 of configuration file "/etc/postgresql/9.1/main/pg_hba.conf"
2014-07-10 16:34:39 EDT FATAL:  could not load pg_hba.conf

Adam,

"listen_addresses='*'" parameter doesn't belong in pg_hba.conf

This parameter should be in postgresql.conf

Regards,
Igor Neyman