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peer

Obtain the client's operating system user name from the operating system and check if it matches the requested database user name. This is only available for local connections. See Section 20.9 for details.

Reading PostgreSQL 18.6.

Description

Method: peer
Configuration: pg_hba.conf
Inventory: User-visible source authentication method

Documented method options and alternatives

Option or term	Meaning
map	Allows for mapping between system and database user names. See Section 20.2 for details.

Manual definition

20.9. Peer Authentication

The peer authentication method works by obtaining the client's operating system user name from the kernel and using it as the allowed database user name (with optional user name mapping). This method is only supported on local connections.

The following configuration options are supported for peer:

map: Allows for mapping between system and database user names. See Section 20.2 for details.

Peer authentication is only available on operating systems providing the getpeereid() function, the SO_PEERCRED socket parameter, or similar mechanisms. Currently that includes Linux, most flavors of BSD including macOS, and Solaris.

Documentation and source

Source build

Version: 18.6
Build: https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/source/v18.6/postgresql-18.6.tar.bz2
Source fingerprint: 555610c24d53e4316da5b7d3fc25c279d96856d5e0e23ee308c328c5fa881d9f

Compare versions

PostgreSQL 17 → 18: unchanged.

Compares recorded interfaces and attributes. Source fingerprints and build metadata are excluded; an absent sample is not proof of the introduction or removal release.

Related entries

Export JSON · Back to Authentication Methods · Recorded in PostgreSQL 10 through 20; the first sample is not necessarily its introduction.