How do the Linux distributions create the Linux user/group "postgres"?
Hello,
Please note: I'm talking about the user and group "postgres" in the
Linux OS and not in the PostgreSQL server.
We're compiling PostgreSQL from source (actually 14.1) and distribute that
to our customers. They're asked to setup user and group "postgres"
before creating the cluster. As nowadays there are a lot of setup such
things in bigger installations, like LDAP or AD, etc. I'd like to know
how other installations for Linux deal with this?
Thanks
matthias
--
Matthias Apitz, ✉ guru@unixarea.de, http://www.unixarea.de/ +49-176-38902045
Public GnuPG key: http://www.unixarea.de/key.pub
On 2023-01-09 07:41, Matthias Apitz wrote:
Hello,
Please note: I'm talking about the user and group "postgres" in the
Linux OS and not in the PostgreSQL server.We're compiling PostgreSQL from source (actually 14.1) and distribute that
to our customers. They're asked to setup user and group "postgres"
before creating the cluster. As nowadays there are a lot of setup such
things in bigger installations, like LDAP or AD, etc. I'd like to know
how other installations for Linux deal with this?
Hi Matthias,
Users are generally created by the pre-install or post-install scripts
of the package. The specific ways in which they are created may depend
on the packaging tool being used and packager that built the
distribution package.
Regards,
--
Thomas
On 1/9/23 07:41, Matthias Apitz wrote:
Please note: I'm talking about the user and group "postgres" in the
Linux OS and not in the PostgreSQL server.We're compiling PostgreSQL from source (actually 14.1) and distribute that
to our customers. They're asked to setup user and group "postgres"
before creating the cluster. As nowadays there are a lot of setup such
things in bigger installations, like LDAP or AD, etc. I'd like to know
how other installations for Linux deal with this?
See for example the PGDG RPM spec file:
8<-------------------
%pre server
groupadd -g 26 -o -r postgres >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
useradd -M -g postgres -o -r -d /var/lib/pgsql -s /bin/bash \
-c "PostgreSQL Server" -u 26 postgres >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
8<-------------------
HTH,
--
Joe Conway
PostgreSQL Contributors Team
RDS Open Source Databases
Amazon Web Services: https://aws.amazon.com
On 09/01/2023 13:41 CET Matthias Apitz <guru@unixarea.de> wrote:
Hello,
Please note: I'm talking about the user and group "postgres" in the
Linux OS and not in the PostgreSQL server.We're compiling PostgreSQL from source (actually 14.1) and distribute that
to our customers. They're asked to setup user and group "postgres"
before creating the cluster. As nowadays there are a lot of setup such
things in bigger installations, like LDAP or AD, etc. I'd like to know
how other installations for Linux deal with this?
Arch Linux uses sysusers.d[1]https://man.archlinux.org/man/sysusers.d.5 to create user postgres[2]https://github.com/archlinux/svntogit-packages/blob/packages/postgresql/trunk/PKGBUILD#L204[3]https://github.com/archlinux/svntogit-packages/blob/packages/postgresql/trunk/postgresql.sysusers.
[1]: https://man.archlinux.org/man/sysusers.d.5
[2]: https://github.com/archlinux/svntogit-packages/blob/packages/postgresql/trunk/PKGBUILD#L204
[3]: https://github.com/archlinux/svntogit-packages/blob/packages/postgresql/trunk/postgresql.sysusers
--
Erik
El día Montag, Januar 09, 2023 a las 08:15:33 -0500, Joe Conway escribió:
On 1/9/23 07:41, Matthias Apitz wrote:
Please note: I'm talking about the user and group "postgres" in the
Linux OS and not in the PostgreSQL server.We're compiling PostgreSQL from source (actually 14.1) and distribute that
to our customers. They're asked to setup user and group "postgres"
before creating the cluster. As nowadays there are a lot of setup such
things in bigger installations, like LDAP or AD, etc. I'd like to know
how other installations for Linux deal with this?See for example the PGDG RPM spec file:
8<-------------------
%pre server
groupadd -g 26 -o -r postgres >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
useradd -M -g postgres -o -r -d /var/lib/pgsql -s /bin/bash \
-c "PostgreSQL Server" -u 26 postgres >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
8<-------------------
From the useradd(8) man page:
CAVEATS
You may not add a user to a NIS or LDAP group. This must be performed on the
corresponding server.
Similarly, if the username already exists in an external user database such as
NIS or LDAP, useradd will deny the user account creation request.
--
Matthias Apitz, ✉ guru@unixarea.de, http://www.unixarea.de/ +49-176-38902045
Public GnuPG key: http://www.unixarea.de/key.pub
On 1/9/23 07:15, Joe Conway wrote:
On 1/9/23 07:41, Matthias Apitz wrote:
Please note: I'm talking about the user and group "postgres" in the
Linux OS and not in the PostgreSQL server.We're compiling PostgreSQL from source (actually 14.1) and distribute that
to our customers. They're asked to setup user and group "postgres"
before creating the cluster. As nowadays there are a lot of setup such
things in bigger installations, like LDAP or AD, etc. I'd like to know
how other installations for Linux deal with this?See for example the PGDG RPM spec file:
8<-------------------
%pre server
groupadd -g 26 -o -r postgres >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
useradd -M -g postgres -o -r -d /var/lib/pgsql -s /bin/bash \
-c "PostgreSQL Server" -u 26 postgres >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
8<-------------------
What if (for example in an already-installed package) uid and gid 26 already
exist?
--
Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia.
On 1/9/23 09:11, Ron wrote:
On 1/9/23 07:15, Joe Conway wrote:
On 1/9/23 07:41, Matthias Apitz wrote:
Please note: I'm talking about the user and group "postgres" in the
Linux OS and not in the PostgreSQL server.We're compiling PostgreSQL from source (actually 14.1) and distribute that
to our customers. They're asked to setup user and group "postgres"
before creating the cluster. As nowadays there are a lot of setup such
things in bigger installations, like LDAP or AD, etc. I'd like to know
how other installations for Linux deal with this?See for example the PGDG RPM spec file:
8<-------------------
%pre server
groupadd -g 26 -o -r postgres >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
useradd -M -g postgres -o -r -d /var/lib/pgsql -s /bin/bash \
-c "PostgreSQL Server" -u 26 postgres >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
8<-------------------What if (for example in an already-installed package) uid and gid 26 already
exist?
The "|| :" at the end of those lines is essentially "or true" -- i.e. if
the first command fails *due to preexisting uid/gid, the line still
evaluates as successful. Whether that is a good thing or not is in the
eye of the beholder I guess.
I have thought about, and played with a bit, the idea of making the
uid/gid in the community spec file a variable so that it could be passed
in at rpmbuild time. But that quickly bloomed into a host of related
issues -- e.g. the default "/var/lib/pgsql" for the home dir, the
default "postgres" for the user/group names, and/or what to do if the
username does not exist but the directory does, etc -- I ran out of
energy to chase it all down.
--
Joe Conway
PostgreSQL Contributors Team
RDS Open Source Databases
Amazon Web Services: https://aws.amazon.com