Re: `pg_ls_dir` can query some directories, but not others

On 11/13/19 2:32 PM, Brennan Vincent wrote:
> Copying here a question I asked on StackOverflow:
> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58846076
> 
> =======================================
> 
> On my system, `/home` and `/etc` have exactly the same permissions:
> 
> ```
> $ ls -ld /home /etc
> drwxr-xr-x 67 root root 4096 Nov 13 15:59 /etc
> drwxr-xr-x  3 root root 4096 Oct 18 13:45 /home
> ```
> 
> However, Postgres can read one, but not the other:
> 
> ```
> test=# select count(*) from (select pg_ls_dir('/etc')) a;
> count
> -------
>    149
> (1 row)
> 
> test=# select count(*) from (select pg_ls_dir('/home')) a;
> ERROR:  could not open directory "/home": Permission denied
> ```
> 
> Even though the user the DB is running as can, in fact, run `ls /home`:
> ```
> $ sudo -u postgres ls /home > /dev/null && echo "ls succeeded"
> ls succeeded
> ```
> 
> What is going on?

Works here(Postgres 11.5, openSuSE Leap 15):

drwxr-xr-x 149 root root  12288 Nov 13 15:24 etc/
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root   4096 Jun  7  2018 home/

production_(postgres)# select count(*) from (select pg_ls_dir('/etc')) a;
  count
-------
    339
(1 row)

production_(postgres)# select count(*) from (select pg_ls_dir('/home')) a;
  count
-------
      2
(1 row)

SELinux (or equivalent) in play?


> 
> My postgres version is 11.5, running on Arch Linux.
> 
> 
> 
> 


-- 
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@aklaver.com