localhost in pgpass file?

Andrew Dunstan wrote:

Can anyone explain to me why 'localhost' in a .pgpass file matches
both a Unix socket and a tcp localhost connection?

Also, there is no documentation at all that I can see to cover the
Unix socket case. I found the information after much looking through
asking on IRC, where luckily Andrew@Supnews knew the answer.

Nobody answered (or maybe cared? :-) )

I propose to document the slightly odd behaviour with this wording:

The literal value <literal>localhost</literal> in the hostname field
matches
an empty hostname connection parameter as well as matching its literal
value.
This can be useful for specifying Unix-domain socket connections.

cheers

andrew

Andrew Dunstan wrote:

Andrew Dunstan wrote:

Can anyone explain to me why 'localhost' in a .pgpass file matches
both a Unix socket and a tcp localhost connection?

Also, there is no documentation at all that I can see to cover the
Unix socket case. I found the information after much looking through
asking on IRC, where luckily Andrew@Supnews knew the answer.

Nobody answered (or maybe cared? :-) )

I propose to document the slightly odd behaviour with this wording:

The literal value <literal>localhost</literal> in the hostname field
matches
an empty hostname connection parameter as well as matching its literal
value.
This can be useful for specifying Unix-domain socket connections.

Added to docs:

A hostname of <literal>localhost</> matches both <literal>host</> (TCP)
and <literal>local</> (Unix domain socket) connections coming from the
local machine.

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