postgresql/doc/src/sgml/chkpass.sgml

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<sect1 id="chkpass">
<title>chkpass</title>
<!--
<indexterm zone="chkpass">
<primary>chkpass</primary>
</indexterm>
-->
<para>
chkpass is a password type that is automatically checked and converted upon
entry. It is stored encrypted. To compare, simply compare against a clear
text password and the comparison function will encrypt it before comparing.
It also returns an error if the code determines that the password is easily
crackable. This is currently a stub that does nothing.
</para>
<para>
Note that the chkpass data type is not indexable.
<!--
I haven't worried about making this type indexable. I doubt that anyone
would ever need to sort a file in order of encrypted password.
-->
</para>
<para>
If you precede the string with a colon, the encryption and checking are
skipped so that you can enter existing passwords into the field.
</para>
<para>
On output, a colon is prepended. This makes it possible to dump and reload
passwords without re-encrypting them. If you want the password (encrypted)
without the colon then use the raw() function. This allows you to use the
type with things like Apache's Auth_PostgreSQL module.
</para>
<para>
The encryption uses the standard Unix function crypt(), and so it suffers
from all the usual limitations of that function; notably that only the
first eight characters of a password are considered.
</para>
<para>
Here is some sample usage:
</para>
<programlisting>
test=# create table test (p chkpass);
CREATE TABLE
test=# insert into test values ('hello');
INSERT 0 1
test=# select * from test;
p
----------------
:dVGkpXdOrE3ko
(1 row)
test=# select raw(p) from test;
raw
---------------
dVGkpXdOrE3ko
(1 row)
test=# select p = 'hello' from test;
?column?
----------
t
(1 row)
test=# select p = 'goodbye' from test;
?column?
----------
f
(1 row)
</programlisting>
<sect2>
<title>Author</title>
<para>
D'Arcy J.M. Cain <email>darcy@druid.net</email>
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>