[Dbconfig-common-devel] postgresql server and .pgpass

[sean finney]

hi martin,

just a preliminary email to get your opinion on this:

in postgresql 7.x, you could get psql and the like to respect
the value of the $HOME environment variable when searching
for the .pgpass file for connection info.

in 8.x, it directly gets the info from a getpwent like function,
thus not making it overridable.

this is a problem in the automagic dbconfig-common system, because
we need to use .pgpass to avoid passing sensitive data on the cmdline.
since it would be a BAD THING to go overwriting /root/.pgpass, i
accomplish this by creating a temp directory and temporarily setting
HOME to this directory, and placing a .pgpass file in there.  now
in 8.x this trick fails.

so my question to you:

- would you consider this regression worth patching (allowing to
  override the default with $HOME if it's set)?
- can you suggest another way of providing this information?

the only other alternative i can think of involves creating a
system user with a home directory where i can freely mess around
with stuff, but that seems like a really ugly hack.

thoughts,questions,comments,etc welcome.

	sean
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