Re: pgpass file in postresql.auto.conf?

On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 8:06 AM Dan Mahoney (Gushi) <postgres(at)gushi(dot)org>
wrote:

> Hey folks,
>
> In the interest of automation, I've set up a pgpass file for my
> pg_basebackup between master and standby. This all works, thusly:
>
> pg_basebackup -d
> 'postgres://repuser(at)10(dot)1(dot)1(dot)1:5432/foo?sslmode=verify-ca' -F p
> --wal-method=stream -P -R -D /var/db/postgres/data17-test3
>
> However, instead of the password getting baked into the pgsql.auto.conf,
> the reference to the passfile gets put in, instead:
>

It's still early in the morning, so I might still be fuzzy-brained, but are
you asking why the repuser password is not hard-coded
into postresql.auto.conf?

> # Do not edit this file manually!
> # It will be overwritten by the ALTER SYSTEM command.
> primary_conninfo = 'user=repuser passfile=''/var/db/postgres/.pgpass''
> channel_binding=prefer host=10.1.1.1 port=5432 sslmode=''verify-ca''
> sslnegotiation=postgres sslcompression=0 sslcertmode=allow sslsni=1
> ssl_min_protocol_version=TLSv1.2 gssencmode=disable krbsrvname=postgres
> gssdelegation=0 target_session_attrs=any load_balance_hosts=disable
> dbname=foo'
>
> But it seems postgres won't actually read the passfile.
>
> Sep 26 12:01:27 hostname postgres[42455]: [7-1] 2025-09-26 12:01:27.658
> UTC [42455] FATAL: could not connect to the primary server: connection to
> server at "10.1.1.1", port 5432 failed: fe_sendauth: no password supplied
>
> Am I doing something wrong here?
>

*When* do you get that message? And what does "for my
pg_basebackup between master and standby" mean?

> I'm loathe to hand-edit the file, because of that warning there.
>
> Why does pg_basebackup put a reference to a file it it won't read it?
>

Because you have a subtle bug in the .pgpass file. It's case sensitive,
and requires the domain name of that's part of $HOSTNAME.

> Is there an alter system command that can be used to properly populate the
> password into this file?
>

Does the .pgpass file work for "regular" connections?

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