Re: correction suggestion for https://www.postgresql.org/docs/17/auth-username-maps.html

David G. Johnston <david.g.johnston@gmail.com>

From: "David G. Johnston" <david.g.johnston@gmail.com>
To: alexey.shishkin@enterprisedb.com, pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org
Date: 2025-07-09T15:15:09Z
Lists: pgsql-docs
On Wed, Jul 9, 2025 at 7:56 AM PG Doc comments form <noreply@postgresql.org>
wrote:

> The following documentation comment has been logged on the website:
>
> Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/17/auth-username-maps.html
> Description:
>
> Dear all,
> Pls. let me suggest the correction for the
> https://www.postgresql.org/docs/17/auth-username-maps.html page.
> It has the following sentence:
> '
> If the database-username field starts with a slash (/), the remainder of
> the
> field is treated as a regular expression (see Section 9.7.3.1 for details
> of
> PostgreSQL's regular expression syntax). It is not possible to use \1 to
> use
> a capture from regular expression on system-username for a regular
> expression on database-username.
> '
> It looks like 'to use a capture' has to be replaced by 'to capture'.
> best regards
>
> What is written is factually correct.  Your suggestion makes it
incorrect; and wouldn't be good English even if it was.
"to capture" involves (...) while using said capture involves \#

David J.

Commits

  1. Doc: clarify description of regexp fields in pg_ident.conf.

  2. In username-map substitution, cope with more than one \1.