Re: pg_role vs. pg_shadow or pg_user

Alexander Reichstadt <lxr@mac.com> writes:

in the documentation of 8.1 the concept of roles is outlined compared

to users and groups at

<http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/static/user-manag.html>.

Um ... why are you reading 8.1 documentation while running 9.1?  There
are likely to be some obsolete things in there.

I also read today that pg_shadow is the real table containing the

users as opposed to pg_user which is only a view and one never

displaying anything but **** for the password. I don't have the link

where that was,

Whereever it was, it was even more obsolete than the 8.1 docs.
pg_shadow has been a view (on pg_authid) for quite a while now.
Try "\d+ pg_shadow" in psql.

The reason this is such a mess is that we've changed the catalog
representation several times, each time leaving behind a view that
was meant to emulate the old catalog.  For some time now, pg_authid
has been the ground truth, but it stores entries for both login and
non-login roles, which more or less correspond to what used to be
users and groups.  pg_roles is the only non-protected view that
shows you all the entries.

regards, tom lane

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