connect to a DB using psycopg2 without password

Question

I have a postgres database on my localhost I can access without a password

$ psql -d mwt psql (8.4.12) Type "help" for help.  mwt=# SELECT * from vatid;   id   | requester_vatid |...   -----+-----------------|...      1719 | IT00766780266   |... 

I want to access that database from django. So I put in DATABASES

DATABASES = {     'default': {         'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',         'NAME': 'mwt',         'USER': 'shaoran',         'HOST': 'localhost'     } } 

Since I don't need a password to access my test database I didn't provide any PASSWORD value in the settings.

$ ./manage.py shell >>> from polls.models import Vatid >>> Vatid.objects.all()   connection_factory=connection_factory, async=async)   OperationalError: fe_sendauth: no password supplied 

I tried using PASSWORD: '' but I get the same error message. I tried to use PASSWORD: None but that didn't help either.

I've been searching the django documentation about this but I cannot find anything useful. It is possible to configure django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2 to accept empty password?

Answer 1

Surprisingly, the answer is to not specify a host at all. If you do this,

DATABASES = {     'default': {         'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',         'NAME': 'mwt',     } } 

Then psycopg2 will connect using a Unix socket in the same manner as psql. When you specify a HOST, psycopg2 will connect with TCP/IP, which requires a password.