[pgAdmin III] #298: pg_hba.conf editor is buggy

#298: pg_hba.conf editor is buggy
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 Reporter:  Damien Clochard  |       Owner:  dpage
     Type:  bug              |      Status:  new  
 Priority:  major            |   Milestone:       
Component:  pgadmin          |     Version:  1.12 
 Keywords:  conf editor      |    Platform:  all  
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 Last month during a PG training, i found a very bad behaviour from
 pgadmin. Here's the step to follow :

 0- backup your pg_hba.conf
 1- launch pgadmin
 2- edit the pg_hba.conf
 3- Add a new line with an error inside the CIDR address.
    For example : host all all 10.224.24.26 trust
 4- save
 5- close pgadmin
 6- now if you edit pg_hba.conf with a generic text editor
    the line you've added will appear.
 7- launch pgadmin again
 8- edit pg_hba.conf
 9- your line doesn't appear
 10- you need to modify pg_ba.conf with a text editor or restore your
 backup

 As you may have noticed, between step 4 and step 10 you'll be unable to
 start PostgreSQL because the pg_hba.conf has a syntax error.

 I can't describe how much this is confusing for newbies : they write a
 pg_hba rule that seems correct (they just wrote an IP Address instead of
 a CIDR ) and then they restart PG to test it... Now the server won't
 start and if they restart pgAdmin, then the faulty line is hidden !

 What's even more confusing is the dialog window that adds a new line....
 There's a field for each part of the pg_hba line. But when it comes to
 the CIDR Address the field label is "IP Address" instead of "CIDR
 Address" or "IP Address + Netmask"

 At the very least, i think the behaviour should coherent. Either pgadmin
 accepts faulty lines then it must be able to display them, or
 Pgadmin refuses to write a faulty line in the pg_hba.conf and in that
 case it's ok hide them...

 I think the best behaviour would be :

   a/ pgadmin refuses to write a faulty line
   b/ pgadmin display faulty lines **in red** (if any)

 ...which is basically the opposite to what pgAdmin is doing now... :)


 Here's more detail :

     * Platform : Windows XP and Linux
     * Language : French
     * Distribution : EDB installer / Ubuntu package / Source
     * Version : 1.10.5 and 1.12.2
     * nothing in pgadmin.log

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Ticket URL: <http://code.pgadmin.org/trac/ticket/298>
pgAdmin III <http://code.pgadmin.org/trac/>
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