A frontend opens a connection to the server and sends a start-up
packet. This includes the names of the user and of the database the
user wants to connect to. The server then uses this, and the
information in the pg_hba.conf file to
determine what further authentication information it requires the
frontend to send (if any) and responds to the frontend accordingly.
The frontend then sends any required authentication information.
Once the server validates this it responds to the frontend that it
is authenticated and sends a message indicating successful start-up
(normal case) or failure (for example, an invalid database name).
In order to serve multiple clients efficiently, the server launches
a new "backend" process for each client. This is transparent
to the protocol, however. In the current implementation, a new child
process is created immediately after an incoming connection is detected.
When the frontend wishes to disconnect it sends an appropriate packet and
closes the connection without waiting for a response from the backend.
Packets are sent as a data stream. The first byte determines what
should be expected in the rest of the packet. The exceptions are
packets sent as part of the start-up and authentication exchange,
which comprise a packet length followed by the packet itself. The
difference is historical.
