From f2764eea4246f9df32e59e321e942120308a4b2e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "Thomas G. Lockhart" <lockhart@fourpalms.org>
Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 13:16:36 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] Clarify ownership and security issues with alternate db
locations.
---
doc/src/sgml/ref/create_database.sgml | 40 ++++++++++++---------------
1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-)
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_database.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_database.sgml
index 98454ace49c..5b3b9c34b64 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_database.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_database.sgml
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ There was a problem with creating the required directory; this operation will
Description
</TITLE>
<PARA>
- CREATE DATABASE creates a new PostgreSQL database.
+ <command>CREATE DATABASE</command> creates a new Postgres database.
The creator becomes the administrator of the new database.
</PARA>
@@ -142,10 +142,10 @@ There was a problem with creating the required directory; this operation will
Notes
</TITLE>
<PARA>
- CREATE DATABASE statement is a PostgreSQL language extension.
+ <command>CREATE DATABASE</command> statement is a Postgres language extension.
</PARA>
<para>
- Refer to DROP DATABASE statement to remove a database.
+ Refer to <command>DROP DATABASE</command> statement to remove a database.
</para>
</REFSECT2>
@@ -157,19 +157,17 @@ There was a problem with creating the required directory; this operation will
To create a new database:
</PARA>
<ProgramListing>
- CREATE DATABASE lusiadas;
+ <prompt>olly=></prompt></computeroutput> <userinput>create database lusiadas;</userinput>
</ProgramListing>
<PARA>
- To create a new database in <filename>~/private_db</filename>:
+ To create a new database in an alternate area <filename>~/private_db</filename>:
</PARA>
<ProgramListing>
- $ mkdir private_db
- $ initlocation ~/private_db
+ <prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>mkdir private_db</userinput>
+ <prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>initlocation ~/private_db</userinput>
<computeroutput>Creating Postgres database system directory /home/olly/private_db/base</computeroutput>
- $ chmod a+rx private_db
- $ chmod a+rwx private_db/base
- $ psql
+ <prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>psql olly</userinput>
<computeroutput>Welcome to the POSTGRESQL interactive sql monitor:
Please read the file COPYRIGHT for copyright terms of POSTGRESQL
@@ -178,7 +176,7 @@ There was a problem with creating the required directory; this operation will
type \g or terminate with semicolon to execute query
You are currently connected to the database: template1
- template1=></computeroutput> <userinput>create database elsewhere with location = '/home/olly/private_db';</userinput>
+ <prompt>olly=></prompt></computeroutput> <userinput>create database elsewhere with location = '/home/olly/private_db';</userinput>
<computeroutput>CREATEDB</computeroutput>
</ProgramListing>
</REFSECT1>
@@ -188,23 +186,19 @@ There was a problem with creating the required directory; this operation will
Bugs
</TITLE>
<PARA>
- Where an ordinary user cannot change the ownership of files to other users
- (which is correct from a security point of view), there is no easy way
- to give the postgres backend access to files in a database at a
- non-standard location without
- giving similar access to all users. The situation shown in the usage
- example makes <filename>/home/olly/private_db</filename> world-accessible.
+ There are security and data integrity issues involved with using alternate database locations
+ specified with absolute path names. See the Administrator's Guide for more information.
</PARA>
- <para>
- If, on the other hand, the user gets the system administrator to give
- file ownership to the <literal>postgres</literal> superuser and restrict access, he will
- then be unable to delete the <filename><replaceable>directory</replaceable>/base</filename> directory.
- </para>
+<!-- ------------------
+comment from Olly; response from Thomas...
<comment>
initlocation does not create a PG_VERSION file in the specified location.
- How will PostgreSQL handle the situation if it is upgraded to an
+ How will Postgres handle the situation if it is upgraded to an
incompatible database version?
</comment>
+Hmm. This isn't an issue since the upgrade would do a dump/reload from the main database area also.
+Not sure if the dump/reload would guarantee that the alternate data area gets refreshed though...
+-------------------- -->
</refsect1>
<REFSECT1 ID="R1-SQL-CREATEDATABASE-4">
--
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