I'm using psql (9.2.23) on my Dell Latitude 3540 laptop running Linux CentOS 7.
I want to do a simple thing: create a database username and log in as that username.
My operating system username is "davide", and the username I'd like to create and use in psql is "davide3". My laptop name is "laptop".
Here are the steps I followed, after having installed PostgreSQL:
[davide@laptop ~]$ sudo su - postgres
[sudo] password for davide:
Last login: XXX
-bash-4.2$ psql
psql (9.2.23)
Type "help" for help.
postgres=# CREATE USER davide3 WITH PASSWORD 'davide3' CREATEDB
CREATEUSER;
CREATE ROLE
postgres=# \q
-bash-4.2$ exit
logout
Then I try to login to the database by using the username "davide3":
[davide@laptop ~]$ psql -d postgres -U davide3
psql: FATAL: Peer authentication failed for user "davide3"
Here's the trouble: I was expecting to get a password-insertion message, and to insert the 'davide3' password, but I did not get anything instead.
What did I do wrong?
How to solve this issue?
Thanks
Best Answer
You're not asked for a password because the
pg_hba.conf
configuration file in CentOS says that a connection through a Unix domain socket implies thepeer
authentication.peer
succeeds only if your OS user is the same as your database user. It's a reasonable default.You may edit
pg_hba.conf
to indicate that anyone can connect locally todavide3
to certain databases or all databases, or more generally whatever policy is best suitable in your case.The file is documented at: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/auth-pg-hba-conf.html
Alternatively, keep the default policy and try to add
-h localhost
to psql invocation. This should trigger a different authentication rule (md5
) in the defaultpg_hba.conf
that will ask for the password.