Contents

• pgpasswd
  • Installation
    • Compiling
    • RHEL 9.8
    • Debian 13
    • Installing
  • Usage

pgpasswd

Change or reset PostgreSQL account password from Linux command line without entering any SQL statement and sending the encrypted password to server.

chpasswd and resetpasswd have been successfully tested with PostgreSQL 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 on Debian 13 and RHEL 9.8.

Installation

pgpasswd provides new PostgreSQL client executables: chpasswd and resetpasswd are standalone executables (no need to install anything in the database, no CREATE EXTENSION to run).

Compiling

This module can be built using a standard PostgreSQL server installation that includes the corresponding PG development package to be able to compile PostgreSQL client library code. - pg_config program must be available in $PATH for user running make. - user running make needs also sudo privilege in order to be able to install executables in PostgreSQL target directory (output of pg_config --bindir).

RHEL 9.8

sudo dnf -y install postgresql17-devel
export PATH=/usr/pgsql-17/bin:$PATH
git clone https://github.com/pierreforstmann/pgpasswd.git
cd pgpasswd
make clean
make

Debian 13

sudo apt -y install libpq-dev
export PATH=/usr/lib/postgresql/18/bin/pg_config:$PATH
git clone https://github.com/pierreforstmann/pgpasswd.git
cd pgpasswd
make clean
make

Installing

make install

Usage

chpasswd for PostgreSQL can be compared to passwd on Linux and UNIX systems when used to change current user password.

Enter: * same parameters (host name, port number, user account and database name) as psql to connect to PostgreSQL * current user password once * current user new password twice.

Example:

chpasswd -h localhost -p 5432 -U test -d postgres
Password:
New password:
Confirm new password:
Password changed.

Detailed PG client, PG server versions and passwords can be displayed with -v option after successfull connexion: $ ./chpasswd -h localhost -p 5432 -d postgres -U test -v Password: PG libpq version: 170004 status:CONNECTION_OK conninfo: host=localhost port=5432 dbname=postgres user=test password=test PG server version: 170004 New password: Confirm new password: ALTER USER test PASSWORD 'SCRAM-SHA-256$4096:oHFXEfD/ol1RTHvsUCjPMQ==$+yZF9VQO3vlq+ypOA+Fbyv6oao22VoQQx0gHHR5gyeQ=:+vELUZddKLWUDMxNAPOD9IW8W6pl5eAt9bcky1XkbvI=' Password changed.

resetpasswd for PostgreSQL can be compared to passwd on Linux and UNIX systems when used to change another user password:

Enter: * same parameters (host name, port number, superuser account and database name) as psql to connect to PostgreSQL * superuser password * other user account for which password must be reset * other user account new password twice.

Example:

resetpasswd -h localhost -p 5432 -U admin -d postgres
Password:
Account:test
New password:
Confirm new password:
Password successfully reset.