Re: Modifying pg_shadow?

Jason Hihn wrote:
 > Tom Lane wrote:
 >
 > > > How do I back up the pg_ system tables?
 > >
 > > They aren't backed up as such; all the useful content is included in the
 > > schema information output by pg_dump or pg_dumpall.
 >
 > What database name should pg_dump be given? This is a horrid omission from
 > the online docs! Furthermore, there is also no system database listed in
 > pg_database.

I think "pg_dumpall -g" is what you want.  That _is_ in the
online docs.

However, I agree that restoring a complete PG cluster from
scratch seems to be somewhat difficult.  You still have to
do a lot of things manually in order to get everything right
without missing anything.  At least that's my impression.

 > What I am trying to do, is I need Postgres to handle a thousand users and
 > several hundred databases. I need somewhere to store what type the user is
 > (our employee or a client's employee), along with a permission list for that
 > user - what database(s) that person can access. I have not yet found
 > something like a pg_grant table to tell me that. There must be one. What is
 > it?

I think you might want to look at the relacl column of the
pg_class table.

However, in your case, it might be beneficial to store the
data about users in your own database, in a format which is
suitable for your use.  You can then generate grant/revoke
commands from that if necessary.  It would also be a lot
more portable than depending on the internal structure of
PG system tables.

Just my 0.02 Euro.

Regards
   Oliver

--
Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co KG, Oettingenstr. 2, 80538 München
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