No pg_hba.conf while trying to use node-postgres - postgresql

Question

I am trying to use node-postgres, but I keep getting an error when I try to connect. Here's the terminal output:
.../node_modules/pg-protocol/dist/parser.js:287
const message = name === 'notice' ? new messages_1.NoticeMessage(length, messageValue) : new messages_1.DatabaseError(messageValue, length, name);
^
error: Ident authentication failed for user "user-name"
at Parser.parseErrorMessage (/.../node_modules/pg-protocol/dist/parser.js:287:98)
at Parser.handlePacket (/.../node_modules/pg-protocol/dist/parser.js:126:29)
at Parser.parse (/.../node_modules/pg-protocol/dist/parser.js:39:38)
at Socket.<anonymous> (/.../node_modules/pg-protocol/dist/index.js:11:42)
at Socket.emit (node:events:513:28)
at addChunk (node:internal/streams/readable:315:12)
at readableAddChunk (node:internal/streams/readable:289:9)
at Socket.Readable.push (node:internal/streams/readable:228:10)
at TCP.onStreamRead (node:internal/stream_base_commons:190:23) {
length: 94,
severity: 'FATAL',
code: '28000',
detail: undefined,
hint: undefined,
position: undefined,
internalPosition: undefined,
internalQuery: undefined,
where: undefined,
schema: undefined,
table: undefined,
column: undefined,
dataType: undefined,
constraint: undefined,
file: 'auth.c',
line: '305',
routine: 'auth_failed'
}
From other questions I've found, it looks like I need to add this line to pg_hba.conf:
local all all md5
Unfortunately, I don't have such a file. I did find pg_hba.conf.sample, which I copy-pasted into pg_hba.conf (in the local directory where I'm editing my js code). I added the line, but this hasn't changed any behavior.
Throughout all of this, I have been able to log into the database via the terminal using $ psql database-name without problem.

Answer 1

The problem is that I wasn't searching for the pg_hba.conf as root. I found and edited it by using sudo:
$ sudo locate pg_hba.conf
/var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf
$ sudo nano /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf
I changed the file to switch everything to use the md5 method:
# TYPE DATABASE USER ADDRESS METHOD
# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local all all md5
# IPv4 local connections:
host all all 127.0.0.1/32 md5
# IPv6 local connections:
host all all ::1/128 md5
# Allow replication connections from localhost, by a user with the
# replication privilege.
#local replication postgres peer
#host replication postgres 127.0.0.1/32 ident
#host replication postgres ::1/128 ident
After this change, there's no more error!