To create, manage, and remove your cluster's users (which lets you control SQL-level privileges), use the cockroach user command with appropriate flags.
Considerations
- Usernames are case-insensitive; must start with either a letter or underscore; must contain only letters, numbers, or underscores; and must be between 1 and 63 characters.
- After creating users, you must grant them privileges to databases and tables.
- On secure clusters, you must create client certificates for users and users must authenticate their access to the cluster.
- Removing a user does not remove that user's privileges. Therefore, to prevent a future user with an identical username from inheriting an old user's privileges, it's important to revoke a user's privileges before or after removing the user.
Subcommands
| Subcommand | Usage |
|---|---|
get |
Retrieve a table containing a user and their hashed password. |
ls |
List all users. |
rm |
Remove a user. |
set |
Create or update a user. |
Synopsis
# Create a user:
$ cockroach user set <username> <flags>
# List all users:
$ cockroach user ls <flags>
# Display a specific user:
$ cockroach user get <username> <flags>
# View help:
$ cockroach user --help
$ cockroach user get --help
$ cockroach user ls --help
$ cockroach user rm --help
$ cockroach user set --help
Flags
The user command and subcommands support the following general-use and logging flags.
General
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--password |
Enable password authentication for the user; you will be prompted to enter the password on the command line. Changed in v2.0: Password creation is supported only in secure clusters for non- root users. The root user must authenticate with a client certificate and key. |
--echo-sql |
New in v1.1: Reveal the SQL statements sent implicitly by the command-line utility. For a demonstration, see the example below. |
--pretty |
Format table rows printed to the standard output using ASCII art and disable escaping of special characters. When disabled with --pretty=false, or when the standard output is not a terminal, table rows are printed as tab-separated values, and special characters are escaped. This makes the output easy to parse by other programs.Default: true when output is a terminal, false otherwise |
Client Connection
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--host |
The server host to connect to. This can be the address of any node in the cluster. Env Variable: COCKROACH_HOSTDefault: localhost |
--port-p |
The server port to connect to. Env Variable: COCKROACH_PORTDefault: 26257 |
--user-u |
The SQL user that will own the client session. Env Variable: COCKROACH_USERDefault: root |
--insecure |
Use an insecure connection. Env Variable: COCKROACH_INSECUREDefault: false |
--certs-dir |
The path to the certificate directory containing the CA and client certificates and client key. Env Variable: COCKROACH_CERTS_DIRDefault: ${HOME}/.cockroach-certs/ |
--url |
A connection URL to use instead of the other arguments. Env Variable: COCKROACH_URLDefault: no URL |
See Client Connection Parameters for more details.
Currently, only the root user can create users.
Changed in v2.0: Password creation is supported only in secure clusters for non-root users. The root user must authenticate with a client certificate and key.
Logging
By default, the user command logs errors to stderr.
If you need to troubleshoot this command's behavior, you can change its logging behavior.
User Authentication
Secure clusters require users to authenticate their access to databases and tables. CockroachDB offers two methods for this:
Client certificate and key authentication, which is available to all users. To ensure the highest level of security, we recommend only using client certificate and key authentication.
Password authentication, which is available to non-
rootusers who you've created passwords for. To set a password for a non-rootuser, include the--passwordflag in thecockroach user setcommand.Users can use passwords to authenticate without supplying client certificates and keys; however, we recommend using certificate-based authentication whenever possible.
Changed in v2.0: Password creation is supported only in secure clusters.
Examples
Create a User
Usernames are case-insensitive; must start with either a letter or underscore; must contain only letters, numbers, or underscores; and must be between 1 and 63 characters.
$ cockroach user set jpointsman --certs-dir=certs
--password flag and then enter and confirm the password at the command prompt.After creating users, you must:
$ cockroach user set jpointsman --insecure
After creating users, you must grant them privileges to databases.
Authenticate as a Specific User
Secure Clusters with Client Certificates
All users can authenticate their access to a secure cluster using a client certificate issued to their username.
$ cockroach sql --certs-dir=certs --user=jpointsman
Secure Clusters with Passwords
Users with passwords can authenticate their access by entering their password at the command prompt instead of using their client certificate and key.
If we cannot find client certificate and key files matching the user, we fall back on password authentication.
$ cockroach sql --certs-dir=certs --user=jpointsman
$ cockroach sql --insecure --user=jpointsman
Update a User's Password
$ cockroach user set jpointsman --certs-dir=certs --password
After issuing this command, enter and confirm the user's new password at the command prompt.
Changed in v2.0: Password creation is supported only in secure clusters for non-root users. The root user must authenticate with a client certificate and key.
List All Users
$ cockroach user ls --insecure
+------------+
| username |
+------------+
| jpointsman |
+------------+
Find a Specific User
$ cockroach user get jpointsman --insecure
+------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| username | hashedPassword |
+------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| jpointsman | $2a$108tm5lYjES9RSXSKtQFLhNO.e/ysTXCBIRe7XeTgBrR6ubXfp6dDczS |
+------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+
Remove a User
$ cockroach user rm jpointsman --insecure
DROP USER SQL statement to remove users.Reveal the SQL Statements Sent Implicitly by the Command-line Utility
In this example, we use the --echo-sql flag to reveal the SQL statement sent implicitly by the command-line utility:
$ cockroach user rm jpointsman --insecure --echo-sql
> DELETE FROM system.users WHERE username=$1
DELETE 1
