| PostgreSQL 7.4 Documentation | ||||
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The catalog pg_shadow contains information about database users. The name stems from the fact that this table should not be readable by the public since it contains passwords. pg_user is a publicly readable view on pg_shadow that blanks out the password field.
Chapter 17 contains detailed information about user and privilege management.
Because user identities are cluster-wide, pg_shadow is shared across all databases of a cluster: there is only one copy of pg_shadow per cluster, not one per database.
Table 43-26. pg_shadow Columns
| Name | Type | References | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| usename | name | User name | |
| usesysid | int4 | User id (arbitrary number used to reference this user) | |
| usecreatedb | bool | User may create databases | |
| usesuper | bool | User is a superuser | |
| usecatupd | bool | User may update system catalogs. (Even a superuser may not do this unless this column is true.) | |
| passwd | text | Password | |
| valuntil | abstime | Account expiry time (only used for password authentication) | |
| useconfig | text[] | Session defaults for run-time configuration variables |