Cannot log in through socket

[grischard]

Describe the bug

Connecting through sockets allows for easy user-based authentication on shared servers. There is currently no documented way of connecting to a socket with the extension.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Configure posgres with socket authentication locally, e.g. the default on Ubuntu
2. Create a new connection in the VS code extension
3. Set the host to /var/run/postgresql, or set the connection string to "psql -h /var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432"
4. Click 'test'
5. See error

Expected behavior

Connects locally through the socket found in /var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.$port_number

Screenshots

Error says: Connection error: connection is bad: could not parse network address "/var/run/postgresql": Name or service not known

VS Code version

Version: 1.100.2
Commit: 848b80aeb52026648a8ff9f7c45a9b0a80641e2e
Date: 2025-05-14T21:47:40.416Z (1 wk ago)
Electron: 34.5.1
ElectronBuildId: 11369351
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.0
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.5.0

Extension Logs

2025-05-23 15:57:50,986 INFO _ _ _
2025-05-23 15:57:50,986 INFO _ __ __ _ ___ __ | | | | ___ ___ | |___
2025-05-23 15:57:50,986 INFO | '_ \ / / __|/ _ | |_____| __/ _ \ / _ | / __|
2025-05-23 15:57:50,986 INFO | |) | (| _ \ (| | |_____| || () | () | _ \
2025-05-23 15:57:50,986 INFO | ./ _, |/_, || __/ _/||/
2025-05-23 15:57:50,986 INFO || |/ ||
2025-05-23 15:57:50,988 INFO Initialized ConnectionManager
2025-05-23 15:57:50,988 INFO Admin service successfully initialized
2025-05-23 15:57:50,988 INFO Language Service Operations Queue starting...
2025-05-23 15:57:50,988 INFO Metadata service successfully initialized
2025-05-23 15:57:50,988 INFO Object Explorer service successfully initialized
2025-05-23 15:57:50,988 INFO Query execution service successfully initialized
2025-05-23 15:57:50,988 INFO Scripting service successfully initialized
2025-05-23 15:57:50,988 INFO Edit data service successfully initialized
2025-05-23 15:57:50,989 INFO Chat service successfully initialized
2025-05-23 15:57:50,989 INFO tools successfully initialized
2025-05-23 15:57:50,989 INFO Schema Editor service successfully initialized
2025-05-23 15:57:50,989 INFO Starting JSONRPC message server.
2025-05-23 15:57:50,989 INFO JSONRPC input thread started.
2025-05-23 15:57:50,989 INFO JSONRPC output thread started.
2025-05-23 15:57:50,990 INFO Received request id=0 method=initialize
2025-05-23 15:57:50,994 INFO ResponseSuccess message sent id=0 method=None
2025-05-23 15:57:50,998 INFO Received notification method=initialized
2025-05-23 15:57:50,998 WARNING Notification method initialized is unsupported
2025-05-23 15:57:50,999 INFO Received notification method=workspace/didChangeConfiguration
2025-05-23 15:57:56,613 INFO Received notification method=$/setTraceNotification
2025-05-23 15:57:56,614 WARNING Notification method $/setTraceNotification is unsupported
2025-05-23 15:57:56,614 INFO Received notification method=workspace/didChangeConfiguration
2025-05-23 15:57:56,615 INFO Received request id=1 method=capabilities/list
2025-05-23 15:57:56,626 INFO ResponseSuccess message sent id=1 method=None
2025-05-23 16:01:06,558 INFO Received request id=2 method=connection/connect
2025-05-23 16:01:06,565 INFO Attempting to connect: owner_uri=[snipped]
2025-05-23 16:01:06,565 INFO Creating new connection pool for details_hash=9169922887297585895
2025-05-23 16:01:06,565 INFO ResponseSuccess message sent id=2 method=None

2025-05-23 16:24:53,017 ERROR Connection error for host=/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432 dbname=test user=test password=***** hostaddr=/var/run/postgresql connect_timeout=15 client_encoding=utf8 options='-h /var/run/postgresql' sslmode=disable port=5432: connection is bad: could not parse network address "/var/run/postgresql": Name or service not known

Add any other context about the problem here.

I'm using a remote connection from macOS to a server running Ubuntu

[grischard]

Quick and dirty workaround, but insecure because it opens a tcp port that's authenticated as the user running the ssh command: ssh -L54321:/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432 localhost

Better workaround: running vscode locally, and building a ssh tunnel to your_database_server instead of localhost

[mmcfarland]

Hi @grischard, we've released support for socket connections in pre-release version 1.9 that should resolve this issue. It will be available if you opt-in to the pre-release version channel for this extension in VS Code. The fix should roll out to all users in stable-release 1.10 in about a week. Please let us know if this resolves your issue. See the full changelog here.

Make sure you use the directory for the socket, and don't include the file name:

[grischard]

Thank you, I was able to connect to a local socket. I haven't been able to connect to a socket over a ssh tunnel though; if it's technically possible, it would be good to document. The ssh tunnel seems to use a socks proxy (ssh -D), so I don't think that's possible?

[mmcfarland]

Thanks @grischard -- do you mind elaborating on this use case a little bit? For example, do you use that setup with other tools like pgAdmin? I'm curious to understand the setup.