Re: Proposal: new file format for hba/ident/hosts configuration?

On Wed, Jul 8, 2026 at 11:42 AM Zsolt Parragi <zsolt(dot)parragi(at)percona(dot)com>
wrote:

> In pg_hba, we already have a way too long "options" column at the end,
> where we store most of the details about external auth providers. If
> an editor doesn't add line breaks, a significant part of the
> configuration is invisible without scrolling right.

But we support backslashes, so there is no need to squash everything onto a
single line, e.g.

host all all 127.0.0.1/32 ldap \
ldapserver=localhost \
ldapbinddn="CN=admin,DC=testy,DC=com" \
ldapbindpasswd="mysecretpass" \
ldapbasedn="OU=Users,DC=testy,DC=com" \

ldapsearchfilter="(&(uid=$username)(memberOf=CN=pg_admins,OU=Groups,DC=testy,DC=com))"

All in all, I am super wary of this whole idea. Not that pg_hba is pretty,
or intuitive, but I second the motion to see what a converted one would
look like. Can the proponents of format X show what our standard default
pg_hba.conf would look like in the new format?

--
Cheers,
Greg