Re: initdb initial password

Tom Lane said:
> "Magnus Hagander" <mha@sollentuna.net> writes:
>> I would like to add capability to initdb to accept the password for
>> the superuser account at invocation. Right now, I can use --pwprompt
>> or -W to have it ask for a password. But for the win32 GUI installed
>> I'd like to ask for the password in the installer, and pass it to
>> initdb. Considering how it's done in different places, what's the
>> preferred way to do this? Commandline parameter? Environment variable?
>> Other (what would that be?)
>
> There's a reason why it's done that way, which is that the others are
> all insecure.  At least on some Unixen.
>

I think a parameter to have initdb read the password from a file ought to
be safe enough. Mark it as one of the less used options - it's really only
of significant benefit for installers, I should think.

cheers

andrew