--- title: All Your GUCs in a Row: ident_file | daily.dev description: A deep dive into PostgreSQL's `ident_file` GUC, which tells the server where `pg_ident.conf` lives. The key gotcha: if the file is missing, the server starts... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/all-your-gucs-in-a-row-ident-file-4qprt4re6 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: All Your GUCs in a Row: ident_file | daily.dev og:description: A deep dive into PostgreSQL's `ident_file` GUC, which tells the server where `pg_ident.conf` lives. The key gotcha: if the file is missing, the server starts... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/all-your-gucs-in-a-row-ident-file-4qprt4re6 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/4QPrt4re6.png og:image:alt: All Your GUCs in a Row: ident_file og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # All Your GUCs in a Row: ident_file **[Planet PostgreSQL](https://daily.dev/sources/planet-postgresql)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A deep dive into PostgreSQL's `ident_file` GUC, which tells the server where `pg_ident.conf` lives. The key gotcha: if the file is missing, the server starts anyway with no user maps and only logs a quiet message — causing authentication failures without any obvious downtime signal. A failed reload is even trickier: the server keeps running with stale maps, so a revoked mapping stays live until a restart. The `pg_ident_file_mappings` view (PostgreSQL 15+) reads from disk, not from memory, so it can show a broken file while the server authenticates against old in-memory maps. Practical advice: always use absolute paths, keep `ident_file` and `hba_file` in sync, and alert on 'was not reloaded' log messages. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [All Your GUCs in a Row: hba\_file](https://daily.dev/posts/all-your-gucs-in-a-row-hba-file-swywfe6vp) · Planet PostgreSQL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [All Your GUCs in a Row: config\_file](https://daily.dev/posts/all-your-gucs-in-a-row-config-file-53spmxdlx) · Planet PostgreSQL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [All Your GUCs in a Row: external\_pid\_file](https://daily.dev/posts/all-your-gucs-in-a-row-external-pid-file-t7mm1hv7k) · Planet PostgreSQL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [All Your GUCs in a Row: data\_directory](https://daily.dev/posts/all-your-gucs-in-a-row-data-directory-nyewadaef) · Planet PostgreSQL · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#authentication](https://daily.dev/tags/authentication), [#postgresql](https://daily.dev/tags/postgresql) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/all-your-gucs-in-a-row-ident-file-4qprt4re6) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"All Your GUCs in a Row: ident_file","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/all-your-gucs-in-a-row-ident-file-4qprt4re6","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/all-your-gucs-in-a-row-ident-file-4qprt4re6"},"datePublished":"2026-08-02T01:31:25.666Z","dateModified":"2026-08-02T03:10:48.141Z","description":"A deep dive into PostgreSQL's `ident_file` GUC, which tells the server where `pg_ident.conf` lives. 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