Re: '-U postgres' doesn't authenticate

On Mon, Oct 18, 2004 at 15:27:28 +0800,
  Derek Fountain <nospam@example.com> wrote:
> I'm using PG-7.4.2 on a SUSE-9.1 box. The docs say that I need to be the
> 'postgres' user in order to do things like create databases, which makes
> sense. If I switch to that user (using 'su') it works fine, but if I use
> the -U switch from my own Linux account I get an error:
>
>  >createdb -U postgres test
>  createdb: could not connect to database template1: FATAL:  IDENT
>  authentication failed for user "postgres"
>
> My understanding is that this should work, and it would be a useful shortcut
> for me if it did. Do I misunderstand or have SUSE set something in the
> config to disable this feature?

You need to say that it is OK for your linux account to connect as postgres.
You do this by changing pg_ident.conf. I think just doing a SIGHUP after
the change is enough to get the file reread.