Thread

1. initdb.exe Fails on Windows When Password File Path Contains Non-ASCII Characters

   Manika Singhal <manika.singhal@enterprisedb.com> — 2025-03-11T11:42:09Z

   Hi,
   
   The postgresql windows installer packaged by EDB, creates the postgresql
   instance on the fly.
   It creates a temporary file to store the password and then deletes it once
   the initdb is run successfully.
   But a user reported the initdb fails. On debugging it was found that, it
   occurs because the username in the
   %TEMP% contains the non-ascii characters as shown in the example below
   *initdb.exe --pgdata="C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\17\data"
   --username=postgres --encoding=UTF8
   --pwfile="C:\Users\玛妮卡\AppData\Local\Temp\passwdXXX"
   --auth=scram-sha-256* *initdb:
   error: could not open file "C:\Users\???\AppData\Local\Temp\psswrdXXXX" for
   reading: No such file or directory* ... .... It seems that initdb.exe does
   not correctly handle paths containing Unicode characters, replacing them
   with ???
   in the error message. I want to ask if this is the expected behaviour of
   initdb.exe? When the user temp location is replaced with system temp
   (c:\windows\temp) the error goes away.
   Any suggestions if the installer should use this path to create the
   password file?
   
   
   -----------------------------
   Thanks & Regards
   Manika Singhal
   EDB India
   

2. Re: initdb.exe Fails on Windows When Password File Path Contains Non-ASCII Characters

   Manika Singhal <manika.singhal@enterprisedb.com> — 2025-03-11T11:48:04Z

   On Tue, Mar 11, 2025 at 5:12 PM Manika Singhal <
   manika.singhal@enterprisedb.com> wrote:
   
   > Hi,
   >
   > The postgresql windows installer packaged by EDB, creates the postgresql
   > instance on the fly.
   > It creates a temporary file to store the password and then deletes it once
   > the initdb is run successfully.
   > But a user reported the initdb fails. On debugging it was found that, it
   > occurs because the username in the
   > %TEMP% contains the non-ascii characters as shown in the example below
   >
   
   
   > initdb.exe --pgdata="C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\17\data"
   > --username=postgres --encoding=UTF8
   > --pwfile="C:\Users\玛妮卡\AppData\Local\Temp\passwdXXX" --auth=scram-sha-256
   >
   
   
   > initdb: error: could not open file
   > "C:\Users\???\AppData\Local\Temp\psswrdXXXX" for reading: No such file or
   > directory
   >
   
   
   > It seems that initdb.exe does not correctly handle paths containing
   > Unicode characters, replacing them with ???
   > in the error message. I want to ask if this is the expected behaviour of
   > initdb.exe?
   >
   
   
   > When the user temp location is replaced with system temp (c:\windows\temp)
   > the error goes away.
   > Any suggestions if the installer should use this path to create the
   > password file?
   >
   >
   >
   sending again with corrected spacing. Sorry for the inconvenience!
   
   
   
   -----------------------------
   > Thanks & Regards
   > Manika Singhal
   > EDB India
   >