Hi. What must I do to enable remote anonymous logins to our
PostgreSQL server? What determines whether a password is required?
Is it possible to require that the password be the user's e-mail
address? Does the server keep record of all connections?

(BTW, our server is version 8.0, and runs on Linux.)

As you can see, I have many questions, too many in fact! I have not
had much luck finding good resources on *administering* a PostgreSQL
server. Are there any good books for this? Or other resources for
the novice dbadmin? I'm particularly interested in stuff on
administering PostgreSQL on Linux/Unix.

Many thanks in advance!

kj



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On 2/27/06 10:21 AM, "kynn@panix.com" <kynn@panix.com> wrote:

>
>
>
> Hi. What must I do to enable remote anonymous logins to our
> PostgreSQL server? What determines whether a password is required?
> Is it possible to require that the password be the user's e-mail
> address? Does the server keep record of all connections?
>
> (BTW, our server is version 8.0, and runs on Linux.)
>
> As you can see, I have many questions, too many in fact! I have not
> had much luck finding good resources on *administering* a PostgreSQL
> server. Are there any good books for this? Or other resources for
> the novice dbadmin? I'm particularly interested in stuff on
> administering PostgreSQL on Linux/Unix.

If you haven't found the postgresql docs yet, they are here and are
excellent.

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0

See here for details on what you want to do:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/i...ntication.html

However, in short, you probably DO NOT want to make anonymous connections to
your database in most cases. What is it that you are trying to do?

Sean



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On 2/28/06, kynn@panix.com <kynn@panix.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Hi. What must I do to enable remote anonymous logins to our
> PostgreSQL server? What determines whether a password is required?
I'd suggest you start by reading the FAQ, and the excellent documentation.
As for the authentication, look at $PGDATA/pg_hba.conf ....

> Is it possible to require that the password be the user's e-mail
> address? Does the server keep record of all connections?
How is it anonymous if you require his password? Or do
you just want to keep track of who it is that logged in without
actual authentication?
As for the recording: it will if you tell it to, again, read the
excellent documentation.

> As you can see, I have many questions, too many in fact! I have not
> had much luck finding good resources on *administering* a PostgreSQL
> server.
Look at again. http://www.postgresql.org/docs/

> Are there any good books for this? Or other resources for
> the novice dbadmin? I'm particularly interested in stuff on
> administering PostgreSQL on Linux/Unix.
There's a couple ... have a search on Amazon for PpostgreSQL

Cheers,
Andrej

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X-Original-To: kynn@panix.com
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 10:34:22 -0500
From: Sean Davis <sdavis2@mail.nih.gov>
Thread-Topic: [NOVICE] How to enable remote anoymous logins? (+ admin
books?)
Thread-Index: AcY7s0gDhq1azaemEdqKXgANkzVl6A==




On 2/27/06 10:21 AM, "kynn@panix.com" <kynn@panix.com> wrote:

>
>
>
> Hi. What must I do to enable remote anonymous logins to our
> PostgreSQL server? What determines whether a password is required?
> Is it possible to require that the password be the user's e-mail
> address? Does the server keep record of all connections?
>
> (BTW, our server is version 8.0, and runs on Linux.)
>
> As you can see, I have many questions, too many in fact! I have not
> had much luck finding good resources on *administering* a PostgreSQL
> server. Are there any good books for this? Or other resources for
> the novice dbadmin? I'm particularly interested in stuff on
> administering PostgreSQL on Linux/Unix.

If you haven't found the postgresql docs yet, they are here and are
excellent.

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0

See here for details on what you want to do:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/i...ntication.html

Thanks!

However, in short, you probably DO NOT want to make anonymous connections to
your database in most cases. What is it that you are trying to do?



I am trying go mimic the behavior of other DB servers I have used that
allow me to connect, without requiring a password, with something
like:

% mysql -h ensembldb.ensembl.org -U anonymous

Granted, all the examples I know of are, like the one shown above,
with MySQL servers, but I thought I'd be able to do the same thing
with Postgres.

Needless to say, my intention was to give the anonymous user minimal
privileges (namely, read-only queries on a specific database).

I suppose that even a user with minimal privileges could cause harm
(e.g. by submitting a very computationally demanding request). Is
this the reason for the advice against such connections, or is there
something else?

kj




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On 2/27/06 12:58 PM, "kynn@panix.com" <kynn@panix.com> wrote:

>
>
> X-Original-To: kynn@panix.com
> Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 10:34:22 -0500
> From: Sean Davis <sdavis2@mail.nih.gov>
> Thread-Topic: [NOVICE] How to enable remote anoymous logins? (+ admin
> books?)
> Thread-Index: AcY7s0gDhq1azaemEdqKXgANkzVl6A==
>
>
>
>
> On 2/27/06 10:21 AM, "kynn@panix.com" <kynn@panix.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi. What must I do to enable remote anonymous logins to our
>> PostgreSQL server? What determines whether a password is required?
>> Is it possible to require that the password be the user's e-mail
>> address? Does the server keep record of all connections?
>>
>> (BTW, our server is version 8.0, and runs on Linux.)
>>
>> As you can see, I have many questions, too many in fact! I have not
>> had much luck finding good resources on *administering* a PostgreSQL
>> server. Are there any good books for this? Or other resources for
>> the novice dbadmin? I'm particularly interested in stuff on
>> administering PostgreSQL on Linux/Unix.
>
> If you haven't found the postgresql docs yet, they are here and are
> excellent.
>
> http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0
>
> See here for details on what you want to do:
>
> http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/i...ntication.html
>
> Thanks!
>
> However, in short, you probably DO NOT want to make anonymous connections
> to
> your database in most cases. What is it that you are trying to do?
>
>
>
> I am trying go mimic the behavior of other DB servers I have used that
> allow me to connect, without requiring a password, with something
> like:
>
> % mysql -h ensembldb.ensembl.org -U anonymous

Ah, yes, good-ol ensembl.

> Granted, all the examples I know of are, like the one shown above,
> with MySQL servers, but I thought I'd be able to do the same thing
> with Postgres.

Yes. You can. Just create an anonymous user and set the auth type to
"trust" for all connections. If you do this, you need to make ABSOLUTELY
SURE that you have sufficiently limited the privileges of that user.

> Needless to say, my intention was to give the anonymous user minimal
> privileges (namely, read-only queries on a specific database).
>
> I suppose that even a user with minimal privileges could cause harm
> (e.g. by submitting a very computationally demanding request). Is
> this the reason for the advice against such connections, or is there
> something else?

That is the main reason in my mind. You might want to look at a web-based
abstraction layer (website) that allows common queries in a quick-and-easy
way and then create user accounts for your "power users" on an as-needed
basis. Look at ensmart, biomart, and the UCSC table browser for excellent
examples of these in genomics.

Sean



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Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 13:10:08 -0500
From: Sean Davis <sdavis2@mail.nih.gov>
Thread-Topic: [NOVICE] How to enable remote anoymous logins? (+ admin
books?)

On 2/27/06 12:58 PM, "kynn@panix.com" <kynn@panix.com> wrote:

If you do this, you need to make ABSOLUTELY
SURE that you have sufficiently limited the privileges of that user.

How can I list the privileges a user has?

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Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 06:50:51 +1300
From: "Andrej Ricnik-Bay" <andrej.groups@gmail.com>

On 2/28/06, kynn@panix.com <kynn@panix.com> wrote:

> Is it possible to require that the password be the user's e-mail
> address? Does the server keep record of all connections?
How is it anonymous if you require his password?

I meant "anonymous" in the same spirit as "anonymous FTP", which often
requests an e-mail address as password. I realize that often it is
possible for users to enter anything in response to this request, but
it is still helpful with users who choose to satisfy the request.

> Are there any good books for this? Or other resources for
> the novice dbadmin? I'm particularly interested in stuff on
> administering PostgreSQL on Linux/Unix.
There's a couple ... have a search on Amazon for PpostgreSQL

That was my initial approach, and I ended up with a book that did not
answer the questions I just posted. Hence I thought I would ask those
with more knowledge for some specific recommendations.

kj


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On 2/27/06 2:05 PM, "kynn@panix.com" <kynn@panix.com> wrote:

>
>
> Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 13:10:08 -0500
> From: Sean Davis <sdavis2@mail.nih.gov>
> Thread-Topic: [NOVICE] How to enable remote anoymous logins? (+ admin
> books?)
>
> On 2/27/06 12:58 PM, "kynn@panix.com" <kynn@panix.com> wrote:
>
> If you do this, you need to make ABSOLUTELY
> SURE that you have sufficiently limited the privileges of that user.
>
> How can I list the privileges a user has?

When I say ABSOLUTELY SURE above, I mean that you really have to read and
understand the access control offered by postgresql, that's all. See here
for managing users and privileges:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/i...ser-manag.html

Sean



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In PLPGSQL, does anyone know how to subtract MILLISECONDS from a field
defined as timestamp(3), yielding another field defined as timestamp(3)?

Have been trying interval, and conversion functions but no luck.

Example: '2006-10-17 14:23:28.951'; subtract 5 milliseconds from a field
called mytable.end_time, and return the results to a field named
work_timestamp.

work_timestamp := ????



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SELECT (end_time - interval '00:00:05') AS work_timestamp FROM mytable;

--
Brandon Aiken
CS/IT Systems Engineer

-----Original Message-----
From: pgsql-novice-owner@postgresql.org
[mailtogsql-novice-owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Lane Van Ingen
Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 2:33 PM
To: pgsql-novice@postgresql.org
Subject: [NOVICE] How to Substract Milliseconds from A timestamp(3)
Field

In PLPGSQL, does anyone know how to subtract MILLISECONDS from a field
defined as timestamp(3), yielding another field defined as timestamp(3)?

Have been trying interval, and conversion functions but no luck.

Example: '2006-10-17 14:23:28.951'; subtract 5 milliseconds from a field

called mytable.end_time, and return the results to a field named
work_timestamp.

work_timestamp := ????



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