[OT] Re: try to get phpmyadmin to work

[Jon Jensen]

On Fri, 24 Apr 2009, Michael Torrie wrote:

>> pg_hba.conf is used to determine who can *connect*.
>
> But why is this needed at all?  MySQL lets me control all of this 
> without ever having to touch the config file, which is kind of important 
> in a hosted environment where the MySQL server is shared among many 
> customers.

It could certainly be done differently, but that's the way it's been done.

It's a separation of authentication from authorization. All the 
network-level connection concerns are done in that configuration file, 
while all the post-connection questions about authorization are done in 
the database schema itself.

You can make a change to pg_hba.conf and send a HUP signal to load it 
without disrupting service.

Postgres's users are a little different from MySQL's. In MySQL they're 
arbitrary login and access names. In Postgres they are system roles that 
actually own objects -- if you try to delete one it will tell you that 
that role still owns objects.

Jon

-- 
Jon Jensen
End Point Corporation
http://www.endpoint.com/