How can I edit pg_hba.conf programmatically?

Question

I'm looking for a way to edit pg_hba.conf programmatically, similar to how pg_conftool allows you to edit postgresql.conf :

~$ pg_conftool 11 main set timezone 'UTC'

I tried using pg_conftool to edit pg_hba.conf . Unfortunately, it only allows key = value entries to be added / removed, which is not the format pg_hba.conf expects.

I can use echo and sed to achieve what I want, but I'm wondering if there's a better way. I found a tool pg_hba in postgresql-common that seems to be what I'm looking for:

https://salsa.debian.org/postgresql/postgresql-common

https://salsa.debian.org/postgresql/postgresql-common/blob/master/pg_hba

I have postgresql-common version 201.pgdg18.04+1 installed, however, I can't figure out how to access / install / invoke pg_hba .

Is the pg_hba tool the right tool for the job? If yes, how do I "install" the pg_hba binary for Ubuntu? If no, is there another recommended approach for programmatically editing pg_hba.conf ?

Answer 1

We don't have a good way for editing pg_hba.conf yet. The pg_hba binary you found is still a WIP. If it works for you, please tell us, and we can work out if installing it to /usr/bin makes sense.

What works now is "pg_conftool 11 main pg_hba.conf edit", but that will just give you an editor.

Another option might be http://augeas.net/ , it has a Pg_Hba "lens". (Puppet supports that natively.)