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Clarify ownership and security issues with alternate db locations.

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This commit is contained in:
Thomas G. Lockhart 1998-05-29 13:16:36 +00:00
parent 3d96825bb1
commit f2764eea42
1 changed files with 17 additions and 23 deletions
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doc/src/sgml/ref/create_database.sgml
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@ -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">