diff --git a/src/backend/libpq/be-secure.c b/src/backend/libpq/be-secure.c
index a501df64d5456622150818ccb28fb40c2df6b31c..5b0312145501e0c70ea800a73ebd69110e365d65 100644
--- a/src/backend/libpq/be-secure.c
+++ b/src/backend/libpq/be-secure.c
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
  *
  *
  * IDENTIFICATION
- *	  $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/src/backend/libpq/be-secure.c,v 1.20 2002/12/18 13:15:12 pgsql Exp $
+ *	  $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/src/backend/libpq/be-secure.c,v 1.21 2002/12/23 22:19:00 momjian Exp $
  *
  *	  Since the server static private key ($DataDir/server.key)
  *	  will normally be stored unencrypted so that the database
@@ -616,7 +616,9 @@ initialize_SSL(void)
 		if (!S_ISREG(buf.st_mode) || (buf.st_mode & 0077) ||
 			buf.st_uid != getuid())
 		{
-			postmaster_error("bad permissions on private key file (%s)", fnbuf);
+			postmaster_error("bad permissions on private key file (%s)\n"
+"File must be owned by the proper user and must have no permissions for\n"
+"\"group\" or \"other\".", fnbuf);
 			ExitPostmaster(1);
 		}
 		if (!SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey_file(SSL_context, fnbuf, SSL_FILETYPE_PEM))