Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:38:51 -0400
From: Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@commandprompt.com>
To: Julius Tuskenis <julius@nsoft.lt>
Cc: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: when does postgresql read from pg_hba.conf ??
Message-ID: <20100426153851.GA3963@alvh.no-ip.org>
References: <4BD53C4B.7020000@nsoft.lt>
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Julius Tuskenis wrote:
> Hello, list
> 
> from the postgresql documentation I know, that "The pg_hba.conf file
> is read on start-up and when the main server process receives a
> SIGHUP signal. If you edit the file on an active system, you will
> need to signal the server (using pg_ctl reload or kill -HUP) to make
> it re-read the file."
> 
> But there have been an incident this Saturday that indicates, that
> these are not the only triggers for reading pg_hba.conf. One of our
> clients edited pg_hba.conf that day (not correctly I must add), but
> neither restarted nor reloaded the postgresql (logs below confirm
> that). Anyway at some point the system started using the newly
> edited file causing some problems. What could cause the pg_hba.conf
> to be read by postgresql ?

Hmm, isn't the file read every time a backend starts on Windows?
This would explain the problem if the file was edited between 13:56:45
and 13:57:38.

-- 
Alvaro Herrera                                http://www.CommandPrompt.com/
The PostgreSQL Company - Command Prompt, Inc.