[Dbconfig-common-devel] dbc_authmethod_user="password" problems

[Finn Smith]

On 9/27/06, sean finney <seanius at debian.org> wrote:
> ...
> yeah... the postgres authmethod stuff seems to constantly be a thorn in
> my side.  can you:
>
> - test against the latest dbc version, just in case?
> - test with the db-test-pgsql package?

Testing using the db-test-* packages in 1.8.11 turned up multiple
errors. Testing using the versions in 1.8.23 things went more
smoothly, but there were still some problems. Here is what happened
with 1.8.23:

In db-test-pgsql I uncommented this line in the config file before
building the package:

    dbc_authmethod_user="password"

When installing the .deb with a debconf priority of "high" it
correctly requested a password for the application user and recorded
the proper values for dbc_authmethod_user and dbc_dbpass in
/etc/dbconfig-common/db-test-pgsql.conf

In db-test-multidbytype I added this line to the config file before
building the package:

    dbc_authmethod_user="password"

When installing the .deb with a debconf priority of "high" I selected
"pgsql" as the database type. It then correctly requested a password
for the application user. However, there were some error messages
during the database creation:

dbconfig-common: writing config to /etc/dbconfig-common/db-test-multidbtype.conf

Creating config file /etc/dbconfig-common/db-test-multidbtype.conf
with new version
creating postgres user dbtestmultidbtype:  success.
verifying creation of user: success.
creating database dbtestmultidbtype: success.
verifying database dbtestmultidbtype exists: success.
populating database via sql...  warning: ident method specified but
local account doesn't exist.
warning: ident method specified but local account doesn't exist.
done.
dbconfig-common: flushing administrative password

In /etc/dbconfig-common/db-test-multidbtype.conf the password was
correctly recorded in dbc_dbpass. However, dbc_authmethod_user was
incorrectly recorded as "ident".

However, if I install db-test-multidbytype with a debconf priority of
low and leave all the selections at their default except for setting
the user authentication method to "password" and then entering the
password, the install performs correctly. The database and database
user are created and the correct values are recorded in
/etc/dbconfig-common/db-test-multidbtype.conf

I confirmed similar behavior with my own package. With 1.8.23, when
configured to use pgsql alone, setting the default auth method to
password works as it should. However, when I set it to use the
multiple databases, setting dbc_authmethod_user doesn't work correctly
at high debconf priorities.

> > I am using version 1.8.11 of dbconfig-common, but I checked in the
> > latest version (1.8.23) and didn't see any substantive differences.
>
> any reason you're using that version?  there have been a lot of bugfixes
> since then--though i don't know that it directly affects this problem.

The goal was to build a package that could be deployed on Ubuntu 6.06,
which has dbconfig-common version 1.8.11. Any suggestions on how I
might force the package into using a password for the application's
pgsql authentication when at higher debconf priority levels would be
appreciated.

If I have the time I'll try and figure out why with 1.8.23 it works
correctly for pgsql alone, but not when pgsql is selected in the
multidatabase mode.

-F