Subject: Incomplete online documentation on conecting via ssh tunnels

From: "P Kapat" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:31:06 -0500

Hi,

If this is not the correct list for the mail, I can post to a more
relevant one, suggest. Otherwise read on:

There was a discussion on connecting to a postgres server via SSH tunnels here:
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-novice/2008-11/msg00060.php

The relevant documentations are (replace 8.3 by 8.2 or 8.1 or...):
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/static/ssh-tunnels.html

The concerned command is:
client$ ssh -L 3333:foo.com:5432 [email-masked]

---

From: Peter Eisentraut <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:26:39 +0200

P Kapat wrote:
>>From the discussion on the novice list, I came to the conclusion that
> the above command works only when listen_addresses = '*' OR
> listen_addresses = 'a.b.c.d'
> (where a.b.c.d is the IP of foo.com; other IPs can be present too)  is
> set in postgresql.conf.
> 
> But in most cases, for security reason, the server is quarantined
> within localhost by setting: listen_addresses = 'localhost'.
> 
> In this case, the ssh tunnel does not work. The correct command is:
> client$ ssh -L 3333:localhost:5432 [email-masked]
> OR
> client$ ssh -L 3333:127.0.0.1:5432 [email-masked]

You are absolutely correct.  Someone already pointed this out 
independently, and the 8.4devel documentation has much better 
information on this:

http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/ssh-tunnels.html

---

From: "P Kapat" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:26:39 -0500

> http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/ssh-tunnels.html

That is much transparent. Would it not be better to link to the
relevant section which describes the listen_addresses and port config
parameters in postgres.conf? For example:

http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/runtime-config-connection.html

-- 
Regards
PK
--------------------------------------
http://counter.li.org  #402424

---

From: Peter Eisentraut <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:18:58 +0200

P Kapat wrote:
> parameters in postgres.conf?

Well, if you are enthusiastic enough you can link anything to anything, 
but it seems to me that the main point in that section is to work with 
the given address and port setup, not to create a new one, so it doesn't 
appear to be so important.