<!--
doc/src/sgml/rel/alter_foreign_table.sgml
PostgreSQL documentation
-->
<refentry id="sql-alterforeigntable">
<indexterm zone="sql-alterforeigntable">
<primary>ALTER FOREIGN TABLE</primary>
</indexterm>
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>ALTER FOREIGN TABLE</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>7</manvolnum>
<refmiscinfo>SQL - Language Statements</refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname>ALTER FOREIGN TABLE</refname>
<refpurpose>change the definition of a foreign table</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsynopsisdiv>
<synopsis>
ALTER FOREIGN TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] [ ONLY ] <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable> [ * ]
<replaceable class="parameter">action</replaceable> [, ... ]
ALTER FOREIGN TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] [ ONLY ] <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable> [ * ]
RENAME [ COLUMN ] <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> TO <replaceable class="parameter">new_column_name</replaceable>
ALTER FOREIGN TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
RENAME TO <replaceable class="parameter">new_name</replaceable>
ALTER FOREIGN TABLE [ IF EXISTS ] <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
SET SCHEMA <replaceable class="parameter">new_schema</replaceable>
<phrase>where <replaceable class="parameter">action</replaceable> is one of:</phrase>
ADD [ COLUMN ] <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> <replaceable class="parameter">data_type</replaceable> [ COLLATE <replaceable class="parameter">collation</replaceable> ] [ <replaceable class="parameter">column_constraint</replaceable> [ ... ] ]
DROP [ COLUMN ] [ IF EXISTS ] <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [ RESTRICT | CASCADE ]
ALTER [ COLUMN ] <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> [ SET DATA ] TYPE <replaceable class="parameter">data_type</replaceable> [ COLLATE <replaceable class="parameter">collation</replaceable> ]
ALTER [ COLUMN ] <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> SET DEFAULT <replaceable class="parameter">expression</replaceable>
ALTER [ COLUMN ] <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> DROP DEFAULT
ALTER [ COLUMN ] <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> { SET | DROP } NOT NULL
ALTER [ COLUMN ] <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> SET STATISTICS <replaceable class="parameter">integer</replaceable>
ALTER [ COLUMN ] <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> SET ( <replaceable class="parameter">attribute_option</replaceable> = <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> [, ... ] )
ALTER [ COLUMN ] <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> RESET ( <replaceable class="parameter">attribute_option</replaceable> [, ... ] )
ALTER [ COLUMN ] <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> SET STORAGE { PLAIN | EXTERNAL | EXTENDED | MAIN }
ALTER [ COLUMN ] <replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable> OPTIONS ( [ ADD | SET | DROP ] <replaceable class="parameter">option</replaceable> ['<replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable>'] [, ... ])
ADD <replaceable class="parameter">table_constraint</replaceable> [ NOT VALID ]
VALIDATE CONSTRAINT <replaceable class="parameter">constraint_name</replaceable>
DROP CONSTRAINT [ IF EXISTS ] <replaceable class="parameter">constraint_name</replaceable> [ RESTRICT | CASCADE ]
DISABLE TRIGGER [ <replaceable class="parameter">trigger_name</replaceable> | ALL | USER ]
ENABLE TRIGGER [ <replaceable class="parameter">trigger_name</replaceable> | ALL | USER ]
ENABLE REPLICA TRIGGER <replaceable class="parameter">trigger_name</replaceable>
ENABLE ALWAYS TRIGGER <replaceable class="parameter">trigger_name</replaceable>
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
SET WITHOUT OIDS
INHERIT <replaceable class="parameter">parent_table</replaceable>
NO INHERIT <replaceable class="parameter">parent_table</replaceable>
OWNER TO { <replaceable class="parameter">new_owner</replaceable> | CURRENT_USER | SESSION_USER }
OPTIONS ( [ ADD | SET | DROP ] <replaceable class="parameter">option</replaceable> ['<replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable>'] [, ... ])
</synopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>
<refsect1>
<title>Description</title>
<para>
<command>ALTER FOREIGN TABLE</command> changes the definition of an
existing foreign table. There are several subforms:
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>ADD COLUMN</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This form adds a new column to the foreign table, using the same syntax as
<xref linkend="sql-createforeigntable"/>.
Unlike the case when adding a column to a regular table, nothing happens
to the underlying storage: this action simply declares that
some new column is now accessible through the foreign table.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>DROP COLUMN [ IF EXISTS ]</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This form drops a column from a foreign table.
You will need to say <literal>CASCADE</literal> if
anything outside the table depends on the column; for example,
views.
If <literal>IF EXISTS</literal> is specified and the column
does not exist, no error is thrown. In this case a notice
is issued instead.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>SET DATA TYPE</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This form changes the type of a column of a foreign table.
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
Again, this has no effect on any underlying storage: this action simply
changes the type that <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> believes the column to
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
have.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>SET</literal>/<literal>DROP DEFAULT</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
These forms set or remove the default value for a column.
Default values only apply in subsequent <command>INSERT</command>
or <command>UPDATE</command> commands; they do not cause rows already in the
table to change.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>SET</literal>/<literal>DROP NOT NULL</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Mark a column as allowing, or not allowing, null values.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>SET STATISTICS</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This form
sets the per-column statistics-gathering target for subsequent
<xref linkend="sql-analyze"/> operations.
See the similar form of <xref linkend="sql-altertable"/>
for more details.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>SET ( <replaceable class="parameter">attribute_option</replaceable> = <replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable> [, ... ] )</literal></term>
<term><literal>RESET ( <replaceable class="parameter">attribute_option</replaceable> [, ... ] )</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This form sets or resets per-attribute options.
See the similar form of <xref linkend="sql-altertable"/>
for more details.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
<term>
<literal>SET STORAGE</literal>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
This form sets the storage mode for a column.
See the similar form of <xref linkend="sql-altertable"/>
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
for more details.
Note that the storage mode has no effect unless the table's
foreign-data wrapper chooses to pay attention to it.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>ADD <replaceable class="parameter">table_constraint</replaceable> [ NOT VALID ]</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This form adds a new constraint to a foreign table, using the same
syntax as <xref linkend="sql-createforeigntable"/>.
Currently only <literal>CHECK</literal> constraints are supported.
</para>
<para>
Unlike the case when adding a constraint to a regular table, nothing is
done to verify the constraint is correct; rather, this action simply
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
declares that some new condition should be assumed to hold for all rows
in the foreign table. (See the discussion
in <xref linkend="sql-createforeigntable"/>.)
If the constraint is marked <literal>NOT VALID</literal>, then it isn't
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
assumed to hold, but is only recorded for possible future use.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>VALIDATE CONSTRAINT</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This form marks as valid a constraint that was previously marked
as <literal>NOT VALID</literal>. No action is taken to verify the
constraint, but future queries will assume that it holds.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>DROP CONSTRAINT [ IF EXISTS ]</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This form drops the specified constraint on a foreign table.
If <literal>IF EXISTS</literal> is specified and the constraint
does not exist, no error is thrown.
In this case a notice is issued instead.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>DISABLE</literal>/<literal>ENABLE [ REPLICA | ALWAYS ] TRIGGER</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
These forms configure the firing of trigger(s) belonging to the foreign
table. See the similar form of <xref linkend="sql-altertable"/> for more
details.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>SET WITHOUT OIDS</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Remove WITH OIDS support, change oid catalog column visibility.
Previously tables declared WITH OIDS, including a significant fraction
of the catalog tables, stored the oid column not as a normal column,
but as part of the tuple header.
This special column was not shown by default, which was somewhat odd,
as it's often (consider e.g. pg_class.oid) one of the more important
parts of a row. Neither pg_dump nor COPY included the contents of the
oid column by default.
The fact that the oid column was not an ordinary column necessitated a
significant amount of special case code to support oid columns. That
already was painful for the existing, but upcoming work aiming to make
table storage pluggable, would have required expanding and duplicating
that "specialness" significantly.
WITH OIDS has been deprecated since 2005 (commit ff02d0a05280e0).
Remove it.
Removing includes:
- CREATE TABLE and ALTER TABLE syntax for declaring the table to be
WITH OIDS has been removed (WITH (oids[ = true]) will error out)
- pg_dump does not support dumping tables declared WITH OIDS and will
issue a warning when dumping one (and ignore the oid column).
- restoring an pg_dump archive with pg_restore will warn when
restoring a table with oid contents (and ignore the oid column)
- COPY will refuse to load binary dump that includes oids.
- pg_upgrade will error out when encountering tables declared WITH
OIDS, they have to be altered to remove the oid column first.
- Functionality to access the oid of the last inserted row (like
plpgsql's RESULT_OID, spi's SPI_lastoid, ...) has been removed.
The syntax for declaring a table WITHOUT OIDS (or WITH (oids = false)
for CREATE TABLE) is still supported. While that requires a bit of
support code, it seems unnecessary to break applications / dumps that
do not use oids, and are explicit about not using them.
The biggest user of WITH OID columns was postgres' catalog. This
commit changes all 'magic' oid columns to be columns that are normally
declared and stored. To reduce unnecessary query breakage all the
newly added columns are still named 'oid', even if a table's column
naming scheme would indicate 'reloid' or such. This obviously
requires adapting a lot code, mostly replacing oid access via
HeapTupleGetOid() with access to the underlying Form_pg_*->oid column.
The bootstrap process now assigns oids for all oid columns in
genbki.pl that do not have an explicit value (starting at the largest
oid previously used), only oids assigned later by oids will be above
FirstBootstrapObjectId. As the oid column now is a normal column the
special bootstrap syntax for oids has been removed.
Oids are not automatically assigned during insertion anymore, all
backend code explicitly assigns oids with GetNewOidWithIndex(). For
the rare case that insertions into the catalog via SQL are called for
the new pg_nextoid() function can be used (which only works on catalog
tables).
The fact that oid columns on system tables are now normal columns
means that they will be included in the set of columns expanded
by * (i.e. SELECT * FROM pg_class will now include the table's oid,
previously it did not). It'd not technically be hard to hide oid
column by default, but that'd mean confusing behavior would either
have to be carried forward forever, or it'd cause breakage down the
line.
While it's not unlikely that further adjustments are needed, the
scope/invasiveness of the patch makes it worthwhile to get merge this
now. It's painful to maintain externally, too complicated to commit
after the code code freeze, and a dependency of a number of other
patches.
Catversion bump, for obvious reasons.
Author: Andres Freund, with contributions by John Naylor
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/20180930034810.ywp2c7awz7opzcfr@alap3.anarazel.de
7 years ago
Backward compatibility syntax for removing the <literal>oid</literal>
system column. As <literal>oid</literal> system columns cannot be added
anymore, this never has an effect.
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>INHERIT <replaceable class="parameter">parent_table</replaceable></literal></term>
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
<listitem>
<para>
This form adds the target foreign table as a new child of the specified
parent table.
See the similar form of <xref linkend="sql-altertable"/>
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
for more details.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>NO INHERIT <replaceable class="parameter">parent_table</replaceable></literal></term>
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
<listitem>
<para>
This form removes the target foreign table from the list of children of
the specified parent table.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>OWNER</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This form changes the owner of the foreign table to the
specified user.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>OPTIONS ( [ ADD | SET | DROP ] <replaceable class="parameter">option</replaceable> ['<replaceable class="parameter">value</replaceable>'] [, ... ] )</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Change options for the foreign table or one of its columns.
<literal>ADD</literal>, <literal>SET</literal>, and <literal>DROP</literal>
specify the action to be performed. <literal>ADD</literal> is assumed
if no operation is explicitly specified. Duplicate option names are not
allowed (although it's OK for a table option and a column option to have
the same name). Option names and values are also validated using the
foreign data wrapper library.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>RENAME</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The <literal>RENAME</literal> forms change the name of a foreign table
or the name of an individual column in a foreign table.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>SET SCHEMA</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This form moves the foreign table into another schema.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</para>
<para>
All the actions except <literal>RENAME</literal> and <literal>SET SCHEMA</literal>
can be combined into
a list of multiple alterations to apply in parallel. For example, it
is possible to add several columns and/or alter the type of several
columns in a single command.
</para>
<para>
If the command is written as <literal>ALTER FOREIGN TABLE IF EXISTS ...</literal>
and the foreign table does not exist, no error is thrown. A notice is
issued in this case.
</para>
<para>
You must own the table to use <command>ALTER FOREIGN TABLE</command>.
To change the schema of a foreign table, you must also have
<literal>CREATE</literal> privilege on the new schema.
To alter the owner, you must also be a direct or indirect member of the new
owning role, and that role must have <literal>CREATE</literal> privilege on
the table's schema. (These restrictions enforce that altering the owner
doesn't do anything you couldn't do by dropping and recreating the table.
However, a superuser can alter ownership of any table anyway.)
To add a column or alter a column type, you must also
have <literal>USAGE</literal> privilege on the data type.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Parameters</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The name (possibly schema-qualified) of an existing foreign table to
alter. If <literal>ONLY</literal> is specified before the table name, only
that table is altered. If <literal>ONLY</literal> is not specified, the table
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
and all its descendant tables (if any) are altered. Optionally,
<literal>*</literal> can be specified after the table name to explicitly
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
indicate that descendant tables are included.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">column_name</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Name of a new or existing column.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">new_column_name</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
New name for an existing column.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">new_name</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
New name for the table.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">data_type</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Data type of the new column, or new data type for an existing
column.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">table_constraint</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
New table constraint for the foreign table.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">constraint_name</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Name of an existing constraint to drop.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>CASCADE</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Automatically drop objects that depend on the dropped column
or constraint (for example, views referencing the column),
and in turn all objects that depend on those objects
(see <xref linkend="ddl-depend"/>).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>RESTRICT</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Refuse to drop the column or constraint if there are any dependent
objects. This is the default behavior.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">trigger_name</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Name of a single trigger to disable or enable.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>ALL</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Disable or enable all triggers belonging to the foreign table. (This
requires superuser privilege if any of the triggers are internally
generated triggers. The core system does not add such triggers to
foreign tables, but add-on code could do so.)
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><literal>USER</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Disable or enable all triggers belonging to the foreign table except
for internally generated triggers.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">parent_table</replaceable></term>
Allow foreign tables to participate in inheritance.
Foreign tables can now be inheritance children, or parents. Much of the
system was already ready for this, but we had to fix a few things of
course, mostly in the area of planner and executor handling of row locks.
As side effects of this, allow foreign tables to have NOT VALID CHECK
constraints (and hence to accept ALTER ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT), and to
accept ALTER SET STORAGE and ALTER SET WITH/WITHOUT OIDS. Continuing to
disallow these things would've required bizarre and inconsistent special
cases in inheritance behavior. Since foreign tables don't enforce CHECK
constraints anyway, a NOT VALID one is a complete no-op, but that doesn't
mean we shouldn't allow it. And it's possible that some FDWs might have
use for SET STORAGE or SET WITH OIDS, though doubtless they will be no-ops
for most.
An additional change in support of this is that when a ModifyTable node
has multiple target tables, they will all now be explicitly identified
in EXPLAIN output, for example:
Update on pt1 (cost=0.00..321.05 rows=3541 width=46)
Update on pt1
Foreign Update on ft1
Foreign Update on ft2
Update on child3
-> Seq Scan on pt1 (cost=0.00..0.00 rows=1 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft1 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Foreign Scan on ft2 (cost=100.00..148.03 rows=1170 width=46)
-> Seq Scan on child3 (cost=0.00..25.00 rows=1200 width=46)
This was done mainly to provide an unambiguous place to attach "Remote SQL"
fields, but it is useful for inherited updates even when no foreign tables
are involved.
Shigeru Hanada and Etsuro Fujita, reviewed by Ashutosh Bapat and Kyotaro
Horiguchi, some additional hacking by me
11 years ago
<listitem>
<para>
A parent table to associate or de-associate with this foreign table.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">new_owner</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The user name of the new owner of the table.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><replaceable class="parameter">new_schema</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>
The name of the schema to which the table will be moved.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Notes</title>
<para>
The key word <literal>COLUMN</literal> is noise and can be omitted.
</para>
<para>
Consistency with the foreign server is not checked when a column is added
or removed with <literal>ADD COLUMN</literal> or
<literal>DROP COLUMN</literal>, a <literal>NOT NULL</literal>
or <literal>CHECK</literal> constraint is added, or a column type is changed
with <literal>SET DATA TYPE</literal>. It is the user's responsibility to ensure
that the table definition matches the remote side.
</para>
<para>
Refer to <xref linkend="sql-createforeigntable"/> for a further description of valid
parameters.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Examples</title>
<para>
To mark a column as not-null:
<programlisting>
ALTER FOREIGN TABLE distributors ALTER COLUMN street SET NOT NULL;
</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
To change options of a foreign table:
<programlisting>
ALTER FOREIGN TABLE myschema.distributors OPTIONS (ADD opt1 'value', SET opt2 'value2', DROP opt3);
</programlisting></para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Compatibility</title>
<para>
The forms <literal>ADD</literal>, <literal>DROP</literal>,
and <literal>SET DATA TYPE</literal>
conform with the SQL standard. The other forms are
<productname>PostgreSQL</productname> extensions of the SQL standard.
Also, the ability to specify more than one manipulation in a single
<command>ALTER FOREIGN TABLE</command> command is an extension.
</para>
<para>
<command>ALTER FOREIGN TABLE DROP COLUMN</command> can be used to drop the only
column of a foreign table, leaving a zero-column table. This is an
extension of SQL, which disallows zero-column foreign tables.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>See Also</title>
<simplelist type="inline">
<member><xref linkend="sql-createforeigntable"/></member>
<member><xref linkend="sql-dropforeigntable"/></member>
</simplelist>
</refsect1>
</refentry>