Emacs, sql-mode, Postgresql and inputing password - postgresql

Question

I'm trying to connect to a PostgreSQL DB thru Emacs using the sql-mode.
I start Emacs, command M-x sql-postgres and it prompts for User,
Database and Server but not for the password. An empty buffer opens
and whatever I write, I get:
the Password for user james:
psql: FATAL: password authentication failed for user "james"
I can login using psql, though. I'm running GNU Emacs 24.4.1 in Linux Antergos, PostgreSQL is 9.3.5.
Thanks..

Answer 1

In case someone else comes looking I solved this by calling send-invisible and typing in my password, after the sql-postgres command completed. Emacs version 24.5.1.
Initiate postgres connection
At blank screen M-x send-invisible
Type password.
Profit.

Answer 2

Kevin's answer provides an interactive solution.
Otherwise you must use a non-interactive method of authenticating (such as a .pgpass file).
My original (and incorrect) suggestion was to enable the "password" option at M-x customize-option RET sql-postgres-login-params RET.
The sql-*-login-params variables (and associated customize widgets) are generalised across all database types; but not all of those options are applicable to all of the databases.
Where applicable, passwords are read by Emacs and then used in the command line. psql doesn't allow the password to be supplied as part of the command, however, so there's no way for Emacs to use this approach here. This is why the password option is disabled for the postgres login params.

Answer 3

Here is a simpler solution exploiting the fact that you can pass a password in the connection string. For example:
(setq sql-connection-alist
'((my-db (sql-product 'postgres)
(sql-database "postgresql://user:pass#host/database"))))
Then disable all postgres login params except for database.
As a bonus here is my config for using the unix password manager pass which I recommend:
(defun my-pass (key)
(string-trim-right
(shell-command-to-string (concat "pass " key))))
(setq sql-connection-alist
'((db (sql-product 'postgres)
(sql-database (concat "postgresql://user:"
(my-pass "db/user")
"#host/database")))))

Answer 4

I find it simplest to explicitly define the connections within the sql-connection-alist. Once the connections are defined, you can connect using sql-connect. A particular connection can be selected using up/down/previous/next. Avoid storing passwords by reading them in during connection with read-passwd.
;; Remove all default login parameters
(setq sql-postgres-login-params nil)
;; define your connections
(setq sql-connection-alist
'((primary-db (sql-product 'postgres)
(sql-database (concat "postgresql://"
"username" ;; replace with your username
":" (read-passwd "Enter password: ")
"#host" ;; replace with your host
":port" ;; replace with your port
"/database" ;; replace with your database
)))
(secondary-db (sql-product 'postgres)
(sql-database (concat "postgresql://"
"username:"
(read-passwd "Enter password: ")
"#host"
":port"
"/database")))))
First, clear out the sql-postgres-login-params variable. There's no sense creating defaults since they'll be defined in the connections list. If sql-postgres-login-params is non-nil, you'll be prompted when connecting. This is annoying and defeats the purpose of explicitly defining connections.
Second, use "Connection URIs" to define a connection.
These have the form:
postgresql://[user[:password]#][netloc][:port][,...][/dbname][?param1=value1&...]
In the example above, we are creating connections called primary-db and secondary-db for postgres. The connections use only the "database" parameter. The database is a connection URI made by concatenating strings into the appropriate form. See how read-passwd prevents us from storing the password? Replace each parameter with your own. Pay attention to the various syntax elements for host (#), port (:), and database (/). If you don't want to store a particular parameter, I suppose you could use read-string just as with read-passwd, but that's basically reinventing the tooling which uses sql-postgres-login-params.
See C-h i d g (elisp) Association Lists for more about alists.

Answer 5

I solved this temporarily by creating a .pgpass file where I stored my connection credentials. I am not comfortable with that and would like a solution that requires inputing the password at login.

Answer 6

I have this problem also. If you go to the empty buffer & hit enter, do you get a password prompt there? I do, and when typing in the password the mode works just fine.

Answer 7

works for me setting the PGPASSWORD environment variable, e.g. (setenv "PGPASSWORD" "whatever your password is")

Answer 8

One can monkey-patch sql-comint-postgres to use the PGPASSWORD environment variable with the standard connection list fields:
(defun sql-comint-postgres (product options &optional buf-name)
"Create comint buffer and connect to Postgres."
;; username and password are ignored. Mark Stosberg suggests to add
;; the database at the end. Jason Beegan suggests using --pset and
;; pager=off instead of \\o|cat. The later was the solution by
;; Gregor Zych. Jason's suggestion is the default value for
;; sql-postgres-options.
(let ((params
(append
(if (not (= 0 sql-port))
(list "-p" (number-to-string sql-port)))
(if (not (string= "" sql-user))
(list "-U" sql-user))
(if (not (string= "" sql-server))
(list "-h" sql-server))
options
(if (not (string= "" sql-database))
(list sql-database))))
(process-environment
(nconc
(list (format "PGPASSWORD=%s" sql-password))
process-environment)))
(message (prin1-to-string process-environment))
(sql-comint product params buf-name)))