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<chapter id="libpq">

</sect1>

<sect1 id="libpq-pgservice">

<title>The Connection Service File</title>

<indexterm zone="libpq-pgservice">

<primary>connection service file</primary>

</indexterm>

<indexterm zone="libpq-pgservice">

<primary>pg_service.conf</primary>

</indexterm>

<para>

The file <filename>pg_service.conf</filename> in the <literal>sysconf</>

directory (typically <filename>/usr/local/pgsql/etc</>) can assocate a

group of libpq connection parameters with a single service name that

can be specified in the libpq connection.

. a user's home directory or the

file referenced by <envar>PGPASSFILE</envar> can contain passwords to

be used if the connection requires a password (and no password has been

specified otherwise). On Microsoft Windows the file is named

<filename>%APPDATA%\postgresql\pgpass.conf</> (where

<filename>%APPDATA%</> refers to the Application Data subdirectory in

the user's profile).

</para>

<para>

This file should contain lines of the following format:

<synopsis>

<replaceable>hostname</replaceable>:<replaceable>port</replaceable>:<replaceable>database</replaceable>:<replaceable>username</replaceable>:<replaceable>password</replaceable>

</synopsis>

Each of the first four fields may be a literal value, or <literal>*</literal>,

which matches anything. The password field from the first line that matches the

current connection parameters will be used. (Therefore, put more-specific

entries first when you are using wildcards.)

If an entry needs to contain <literal>:</literal> or

<literal>\</literal>, escape this character with <literal>\</literal>.

A hostname of <literal>localhost</> matches both <literal>host</> (TCP)

and <literal>local</> (Unix domain socket) connections coming from the

local machine.

</para>

<para>

The permissions on <filename>.pgpass</filename> must disallow any

access to world or group; achieve this by the command

<command>chmod 0600 ~/.pgpass</command>.

If the permissions are less strict than this, the file will be ignored.

(The file permissions are not currently checked on Microsoft Windows,

however.)

</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="libpq-ssl">

<title>SSL Support</title>