Re: pg_basebackup with -R option and start standby have problems with escaped password

On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Hari Babu <haribabu(dot)kommi(at)huawei(dot)com> wrote:
> Test scenario to reproduce:
> 1. Start the server
> 2. create the user as follows
> ./psql postgres -c "create user user1 superuser login
> password 'use''1'"
>
> 3. Take the backup with -R option as follows.
> ./pg_basebackup -D ../../data1 -R -U user1 -W
>
> The following errors are occurring when the new standby on the backup
> database starts.
>
> FATAL: could not connect to the primary server: missing "=" after "1'" in
> connection info string

What does the resulting recovery.conf file look like?

--
Magnus Hagander
Me: http://www.hagander.net/
Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/

On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 11:48 PM, Magnus Hagander wrote:
>On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Hari Babu <haribabu(dot)kommi(at)huawei(dot)com>
wrote:
>> Test scenario to reproduce:
>> 1. Start the server
>> 2. create the user as follows
>> ./psql postgres -c "create user user1 superuser login
>> password 'use''1'"
>>
>> 3. Take the backup with -R option as follows.
>> ./pg_basebackup -D ../../data1 -R -U user1 -W
>>
>> The following errors are occurring when the new standby on the backup
>> database starts.
>>
>> FATAL: could not connect to the primary server: missing "=" after "1'"
in
>> connection info string
>
>What does the resulting recovery.conf file look like?

The recovery.conf which is generated is as follows

standby_mode = 'on'
primary_conninfo = 'user=''user1'' password=''use''1'' port=''5432'' '

I observed the problem is while reading primary_conninfo from the
recovery.conf file
the function "GUC_scanstr" removes the quotes of the string and also makes
the
continuos double quote('') as single quote(').

By using the same connection string while connecting to primary server the
function "conninfo_parse" the escape quotes are not able to parse properly
and it is leading
to problem.

please correct me if any thing wrong in my observation.

Regards,
Hari babu.

On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 7:04 AM, Hari Babu <haribabu(dot)kommi(at)huawei(dot)com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 11:48 PM, Magnus Hagander wrote:
>>On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Hari Babu <haribabu(dot)kommi(at)huawei(dot)com>
> wrote:
>>> Test scenario to reproduce:
>>> 1. Start the server
>>> 2. create the user as follows
>>> ./psql postgres -c "create user user1 superuser login
>>> password 'use''1'"
>>>
>>> 3. Take the backup with -R option as follows.
>>> ./pg_basebackup -D ../../data1 -R -U user1 -W
>>>
>>> The following errors are occurring when the new standby on the backup
>>> database starts.
>>>
>>> FATAL: could not connect to the primary server: missing "=" after "1'"
> in
>>> connection info string
>>
>>What does the resulting recovery.conf file look like?
>
> The recovery.conf which is generated is as follows
>
> standby_mode = 'on'
> primary_conninfo = 'user=''user1'' password=''use''1'' port=''5432'' '
>
>
> I observed the problem is while reading primary_conninfo from the
> recovery.conf file
> the function "GUC_scanstr" removes the quotes of the string and also makes
> the
> continuos double quote('') as single quote(').
>
> By using the same connection string while connecting to primary server the
> function "conninfo_parse" the escape quotes are not able to parse properly
> and it is leading
> to problem.
>
> please correct me if any thing wrong in my observation.

Well, it's clearly broken at least :O

Zoltan, do you have time to look at it? I won't have time until at
least after FOSDEM, unfortunately.

--
Magnus Hagander
Me: http://www.hagander.net/
Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/

2013-01-29 11:15 keltezéssel, Magnus Hagander írta:
> On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 7:04 AM, Hari Babu <haribabu(dot)kommi(at)huawei(dot)com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 11:48 PM, Magnus Hagander wrote:
>>> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Hari Babu <haribabu(dot)kommi(at)huawei(dot)com>
>> wrote:
>>>> Test scenario to reproduce:
>>>> 1. Start the server
>>>> 2. create the user as follows
>>>> ./psql postgres -c "create user user1 superuser login
>>>> password 'use''1'"
>>>>
>>>> 3. Take the backup with -R option as follows.
>>>> ./pg_basebackup -D ../../data1 -R -U user1 -W
>>>>
>>>> The following errors are occurring when the new standby on the backup
>>>> database starts.
>>>>
>>>> FATAL: could not connect to the primary server: missing "=" after "1'"
>> in
>>>> connection info string
>>> What does the resulting recovery.conf file look like?
>> The recovery.conf which is generated is as follows
>>
>> standby_mode = 'on'
>> primary_conninfo = 'user=''user1'' password=''use''1'' port=''5432'' '
>>
>>
>> I observed the problem is while reading primary_conninfo from the
>> recovery.conf file
>> the function "GUC_scanstr" removes the quotes of the string and also makes
>> the
>> continuos double quote('') as single quote(').
>>
>> By using the same connection string while connecting to primary server the
>> function "conninfo_parse" the escape quotes are not able to parse properly
>> and it is leading
>> to problem.
>>
>> please correct me if any thing wrong in my observation.
> Well, it's clearly broken at least :O
>
> Zoltan, do you have time to look at it? I won't have time until at
> least after FOSDEM, unfortunately.

I looked at it shortly. What I tried first is adding another pair of single
quotes manually like this:

primary_conninfo = 'user=''user1'' password=''use''''1'' host=''192.168.1.2''
port=''5432'' sslmode=''disable'' sslcompression=''1'' '

But it doesn't solve the problem either, I got:

FATAL: could not connect to the primary server: missing "=" after "'1'" in connection
info string

This worked though:

primary_conninfo = 'user=user1 password=use\'1 host=192.168.1.2 port=5432 sslmode=disable
sslcompression=1 '

When I added an elog() to print the conninfo string in libpqrcv_connect(),
I saw that the double quotes were properly eliminated by ParseConfigFp()
in the first case.

So, there is a bug in generating recovery.conf by not double-escaping
the values and another bug in parsing the connection string in libpq
when the parameter value starts with a single-quote character.

Attached are two patches to fix these two bugs, the libpq part can
be back-patched.

Best regards,
Zoltán Böszörményi

--
----------------------------------
Zoltán Böszörményi
Cybertec Schönig & Schönig GmbH
Gröhrmühlgasse 26
A-2700 Wiener Neustadt, Austria
Web: http://www.postgresql-support.de
http://www.postgresql.at/

On Monday, February 18, 2013 8:06 PM Boszormenyi Zoltan wrote:
>On 2013-01-29 11:15 keltezéssel, Magnus Hagander írta:
>> On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 7:04 AM, Hari Babu wrote:
>>> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 11:48 PM, Magnus Hagander wrote:
>>>> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Hari Babu wrote:
>>>>> Test scenario to reproduce:
>>>>> 1. Start the server
>>>>> 2. create the user as follows
>>>>> ./psql postgres -c "create user user1 superuser
>>>>> login password 'use''1'"
>>>>>
>>>>> 3. Take the backup with -R option as follows.
>>>>> ./pg_basebackup -D ../../data1 -R -U user1 -W
>>>>>
>>>>> The following errors are occurring when the new standby on the
>>>>> backup database starts.
>>>>>
>>>>> FATAL: could not connect to the primary server: missing "=" after
"1'"
>>> in
>>>>> connection info string
>>>> What does the resulting recovery.conf file look like?
>>> The recovery.conf which is generated is as follows
>>>
>>> standby_mode = 'on'
>>> primary_conninfo = 'user=''user1'' password=''use''1'' port=''5432'' '
>>>
>>>
>>> I observed the problem is while reading primary_conninfo from the
>>> recovery.conf file the function "GUC_scanstr" removes the quotes of
>>> the string and also makes the continuos double quote('') as single
>>> quote(').
>>>
>>> By using the same connection string while connecting to primary
>>> server the function "conninfo_parse" the escape quotes are not able
>>> to parse properly and it is leading to problem.
>>>
>>> please correct me if any thing wrong in my observation.
>> Well, it's clearly broken at least :O
>
>So, there is a bug in generating recovery.conf by not double-escaping the
values and another bug >in parsing the connection string in libpq when the
parameter value starts with a single-quote >character.
>
>Attached are two patches to fix these two bugs, the libpq part can be
back-patched.

With the attached patches I tested the defect and it is fixed.

Regards,
Hari babu.

On 18.02.2013 16:35, Boszormenyi Zoltan wrote:
> 2013-01-29 11:15 keltezéssel, Magnus Hagander írta:
>> On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 7:04 AM, Hari Babu <haribabu(dot)kommi(at)huawei(dot)com>
>> wrote:
>>> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 11:48 PM, Magnus Hagander wrote:
>>>> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Hari Babu <haribabu(dot)kommi(at)huawei(dot)com>
>>> wrote:
>>>>> Test scenario to reproduce:
>>>>> 1. Start the server
>>>>> 2. create the user as follows
>>>>> ./psql postgres -c "create user user1 superuser login
>>>>> password 'use''1'"
>>>>>
>>>>> 3. Take the backup with -R option as follows.
>>>>> ./pg_basebackup -D ../../data1 -R -U user1 -W
>>>>>
>>>>> The following errors are occurring when the new standby on the backup
>>>>> database starts.
>>>>>
>>>>> FATAL: could not connect to the primary server: missing "=" after "1'"
>>> in
>>>>> connection info string
>>>> What does the resulting recovery.conf file look like?
>>> The recovery.conf which is generated is as follows
>>>
>>> standby_mode = 'on'
>>> primary_conninfo = 'user=''user1'' password=''use''1'' port=''5432'' '
>>>
>>>
>>> I observed the problem is while reading primary_conninfo from the
>>> recovery.conf file
>>> the function "GUC_scanstr" removes the quotes of the string and also
>>> makes
>>> the
>>> continuos double quote('') as single quote(').
>>>
>>> By using the same connection string while connecting to primary
>>> server the
>>> function "conninfo_parse" the escape quotes are not able to parse
>>> properly
>>> and it is leading
>>> to problem.
>>>
>>> please correct me if any thing wrong in my observation.
>> Well, it's clearly broken at least :O
>>
>> Zoltan, do you have time to look at it? I won't have time until at
>> least after FOSDEM, unfortunately.
>
> I looked at it shortly. What I tried first is adding another pair of single
> quotes manually like this:
>
> primary_conninfo = 'user=''user1'' password=''use''''1''
> host=''192.168.1.2'' port=''5432'' sslmode=''disable''
> sslcompression=''1'' '
>
> But it doesn't solve the problem either, I got:
>
> FATAL: could not connect to the primary server: missing "=" after "'1'"
> in connection info string
>
> This worked though:
>
> primary_conninfo = 'user=user1 password=use\'1 host=192.168.1.2
> port=5432 sslmode=disable sslcompression=1 '
>
> When I added an elog() to print the conninfo string in libpqrcv_connect(),
> I saw that the double quotes were properly eliminated by ParseConfigFp()
> in the first case.
>
> So, there is a bug in generating recovery.conf by not double-escaping
> the values and another bug in parsing the connection string in libpq
> when the parameter value starts with a single-quote character.

No, the libpq connection string parser is working as intended. Per the
docs on PQconnectdb:

> The passed string can be empty to use all default parameters, or it
> can contain one or more parameter settings separated by whitespace.
> Each parameter setting is in the form keyword = value. Spaces around
> the equal sign are optional. To write an empty value, or a value
> containing spaces, surround it with single quotes, e.g., keyword = 'a
> value'. Single quotes and backslashes within the value must be
> escaped with a backslash, i.e., \' and \\.

So, the proper way to escape a quote in a libpq connection string is \',
not ''. There are two escaping systems layered on top of each other; the
recovery.conf parser's, where you use '', and the libpq system, where
you use \'. So we need two different escaping functions in pg_basebackup
to get this right.

Apart from that, does it bother anyone else that the the
primary_conninfo line that pg_basebackup creates is butt-ugly?

primary_conninfo = 'user=''heikki'' host=''localhost'' port=''5432''
sslmode=''prefer'' sslcompression=''1'' '

We can't avoid quoting option values that need it, but that's probably
very rare in practice. I think we should work a bit harder and leave out
the quotes where not necessary. Also, do we really need to include the
ssl options when they are the defaults?

I think the attached patch fixes the original test scenario correctly,
without changing libpq's quoting rules, and only quotes when necessary.
I didn't do anything about the ssl options. Please take a look.

- Heikki

2013-05-17 16:05 keltezéssel, Heikki Linnakangas írta:
> On 18.02.2013 16:35, Boszormenyi Zoltan wrote:
>> 2013-01-29 11:15 keltezéssel, Magnus Hagander írta:
>>> On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 7:04 AM, Hari Babu <haribabu(dot)kommi(at)huawei(dot)com>
>>> wrote:
>>>> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 11:48 PM, Magnus Hagander wrote:
>>>>> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Hari Babu <haribabu(dot)kommi(at)huawei(dot)com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> Test scenario to reproduce:
>>>>>> 1. Start the server
>>>>>> 2. create the user as follows
>>>>>> ./psql postgres -c "create user user1 superuser login
>>>>>> password 'use''1'"
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 3. Take the backup with -R option as follows.
>>>>>> ./pg_basebackup -D ../../data1 -R -U user1 -W
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The following errors are occurring when the new standby on the backup
>>>>>> database starts.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> FATAL: could not connect to the primary server: missing "=" after "1'"
>>>> in
>>>>>> connection info string
>>>>> What does the resulting recovery.conf file look like?
>>>> The recovery.conf which is generated is as follows
>>>>
>>>> standby_mode = 'on'
>>>> primary_conninfo = 'user=''user1'' password=''use''1'' port=''5432'' '
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I observed the problem is while reading primary_conninfo from the
>>>> recovery.conf file
>>>> the function "GUC_scanstr" removes the quotes of the string and also
>>>> makes
>>>> the
>>>> continuos double quote('') as single quote(').
>>>>
>>>> By using the same connection string while connecting to primary
>>>> server the
>>>> function "conninfo_parse" the escape quotes are not able to parse
>>>> properly
>>>> and it is leading
>>>> to problem.
>>>>
>>>> please correct me if any thing wrong in my observation.
>>> Well, it's clearly broken at least :O
>>>
>>> Zoltan, do you have time to look at it? I won't have time until at
>>> least after FOSDEM, unfortunately.
>>
>> I looked at it shortly. What I tried first is adding another pair of single
>> quotes manually like this:
>>
>> primary_conninfo = 'user=''user1'' password=''use''''1''
>> host=''192.168.1.2'' port=''5432'' sslmode=''disable''
>> sslcompression=''1'' '
>>
>> But it doesn't solve the problem either, I got:
>>
>> FATAL: could not connect to the primary server: missing "=" after "'1'"
>> in connection info string
>>
>> This worked though:
>>
>> primary_conninfo = 'user=user1 password=use\'1 host=192.168.1.2
>> port=5432 sslmode=disable sslcompression=1 '
>>
>> When I added an elog() to print the conninfo string in libpqrcv_connect(),
>> I saw that the double quotes were properly eliminated by ParseConfigFp()
>> in the first case.
>>
>> So, there is a bug in generating recovery.conf by not double-escaping
>> the values and another bug in parsing the connection string in libpq
>> when the parameter value starts with a single-quote character.
>
> No, the libpq connection string parser is working as intended. Per the docs on PQconnectdb:
>
>> The passed string can be empty to use all default parameters, or it
>> can contain one or more parameter settings separated by whitespace.
>> Each parameter setting is in the form keyword = value. Spaces around
>> the equal sign are optional. To write an empty value, or a value
>> containing spaces, surround it with single quotes, e.g., keyword = 'a
>> value'. Single quotes and backslashes within the value must be
>> escaped with a backslash, i.e., \' and \\.
>
> So, the proper way to escape a quote in a libpq connection string is \', not ''. There
> are two escaping systems layered on top of each other; the recovery.conf parser's, where
> you use '', and the libpq system, where you use \'. So we need two different escaping
> functions in pg_basebackup to get this right.

Why is extending the libpq parser to allow doubling the single
quotes not a good solution? It would be consistent in this regard
with the recovery.conf parser. From this POV the first patch only
needs a little change in the libpq docs.

Also, my patch for libpq only changed the libpq parser when the
parameter argument starts with \'. So in that state the doubled
single quotes should be an accepted escaping in the middle of
the string, too. If you look at the code, there are two branches
that process the argument differently depending on whether
it starts with a \' or not.

>
> Apart from that, does it bother anyone else that the the primary_conninfo line that
> pg_basebackup creates is butt-ugly?
>
> primary_conninfo = 'user=''heikki'' host=''localhost'' port=''5432'' sslmode=''prefer''
> sslcompression=''1'' '

Not a single bit. It's machine generated and the code is generic.
The parser can deal with it.

>
> We can't avoid quoting option values that need it, but that's probably very rare in
> practice. I think we should work a bit harder and leave out the quotes where not necessary.

Maybe. :-)

> Also, do we really need to include the ssl options when they are the defaults?

I think we were through about this bullet point. IIRC the reasoning and
the consensus was that the backup and the generated recovery.conf
should also work on another machine with a possibly different set of
compilation options for libpq and envvars present on the system.

>
> I think the attached patch fixes the original test scenario correctly, without changing
> libpq's quoting rules, and only quotes when necessary. I didn't do anything about the
> ssl options. Please take a look.

Your patch should work, too.
But as a separate issue, please consider my reasoning for the libpq patch.

Best regards,
Zoltán Böszörményi

--
----------------------------------
Zoltán Böszörményi
Cybertec Schönig & Schönig GmbH
Gröhrmühlgasse 26
A-2700 Wiener Neustadt, Austria
Web: http://www.postgresql-support.de
http://www.postgresql.at/

On 17.05.2013 19:03, Boszormenyi Zoltan wrote:
> 2013-05-17 16:05 keltezéssel, Heikki Linnakangas írta:
>> On 18.02.2013 16:35, Boszormenyi Zoltan wrote:
>>> 2013-01-29 11:15 keltezéssel, Magnus Hagander írta:
>>>> On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 7:04 AM, Hari Babu <haribabu(dot)kommi(at)huawei(dot)com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 11:48 PM, Magnus Hagander wrote:
>>>>>> On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 10:18 AM, Hari Babu
>>>>>> <haribabu(dot)kommi(at)huawei(dot)com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>> Test scenario to reproduce:
>>>>>>> 1. Start the server
>>>>>>> 2. create the user as follows
>>>>>>> ./psql postgres -c "create user user1 superuser login
>>>>>>> password 'use''1'"
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 3. Take the backup with -R option as follows.
>>>>>>> ./pg_basebackup -D ../../data1 -R -U user1 -W
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The following errors are occurring when the new standby on the
>>>>>>> backup
>>>>>>> database starts.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> FATAL: could not connect to the primary server: missing "=" after
>>>>>>> "1'"
>>>>> in
>>>>>>> connection info string
>>>>>> What does the resulting recovery.conf file look like?
>>>>> The recovery.conf which is generated is as follows
>>>>>
>>>>> standby_mode = 'on'
>>>>> primary_conninfo = 'user=''user1'' password=''use''1'' port=''5432'' '
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I observed the problem is while reading primary_conninfo from the
>>>>> recovery.conf file
>>>>> the function "GUC_scanstr" removes the quotes of the string and also
>>>>> makes
>>>>> the
>>>>> continuos double quote('') as single quote(').
>>>>>
>>>>> By using the same connection string while connecting to primary
>>>>> server the
>>>>> function "conninfo_parse" the escape quotes are not able to parse
>>>>> properly
>>>>> and it is leading
>>>>> to problem.
>>>>>
>>>>> please correct me if any thing wrong in my observation.
>>>> Well, it's clearly broken at least :O
>>>>
>>>> Zoltan, do you have time to look at it? I won't have time until at
>>>> least after FOSDEM, unfortunately.
>>>
>>> I looked at it shortly. What I tried first is adding another pair of
>>> single
>>> quotes manually like this:
>>>
>>> primary_conninfo = 'user=''user1'' password=''use''''1''
>>> host=''192.168.1.2'' port=''5432'' sslmode=''disable''
>>> sslcompression=''1'' '
>>>
>>> But it doesn't solve the problem either, I got:
>>>
>>> FATAL: could not connect to the primary server: missing "=" after "'1'"
>>> in connection info string
>>>
>>> This worked though:
>>>
>>> primary_conninfo = 'user=user1 password=use\'1 host=192.168.1.2
>>> port=5432 sslmode=disable sslcompression=1 '
>>>
>>> When I added an elog() to print the conninfo string in
>>> libpqrcv_connect(),
>>> I saw that the double quotes were properly eliminated by ParseConfigFp()
>>> in the first case.
>>>
>>> So, there is a bug in generating recovery.conf by not double-escaping
>>> the values and another bug in parsing the connection string in libpq
>>> when the parameter value starts with a single-quote character.
>>
>> No, the libpq connection string parser is working as intended. Per the
>> docs on PQconnectdb:
>>
>>> The passed string can be empty to use all default parameters, or it
>>> can contain one or more parameter settings separated by whitespace.
>>> Each parameter setting is in the form keyword = value. Spaces around
>>> the equal sign are optional. To write an empty value, or a value
>>> containing spaces, surround it with single quotes, e.g., keyword = 'a
>>> value'. Single quotes and backslashes within the value must be
>>> escaped with a backslash, i.e., \' and \\.
>>
>> So, the proper way to escape a quote in a libpq connection string is
>> \', not ''. There are two escaping systems layered on top of each
>> other; the recovery.conf parser's, where you use '', and the libpq
>> system, where you use \'. So we need two different escaping functions
>> in pg_basebackup to get this right.
>
> Why is extending the libpq parser to allow doubling the single
> quotes not a good solution? It would be consistent in this regard
> with the recovery.conf parser. From this POV the first patch only
> needs a little change in the libpq docs.

I guess that would work too, but I don't see any meaningful advantage in
doing that.

>> Apart from that, does it bother anyone else that the the
>> primary_conninfo line that pg_basebackup creates is butt-ugly?
>>
>> primary_conninfo = 'user=''heikki'' host=''localhost'' port=''5432''
>> sslmode=''prefer'' sslcompression=''1'' '
>
> Not a single bit. It's machine generated and the code is generic.
> The parser can deal with it.

Oh, ok :-). Well, IMO that's really ugly; the file ought to be
human-readable too.

>> Also, do we really need to include the ssl options when they are the
>> defaults?
>
> I think we were through about this bullet point. IIRC the reasoning and
> the consensus was that the backup and the generated recovery.conf
> should also work on another machine with a possibly different set of
> compilation options for libpq and envvars present on the system.

Ok.

>> I think the attached patch fixes the original test scenario correctly,
>> without changing libpq's quoting rules, and only quotes when
>> necessary. I didn't do anything about the ssl options. Please take a
>> look.
>
> Your patch should work, too.

Thanks, I've applied that.

- Heikki