Re: Bug in DROP NOT NULL

From: Christopher Kings-Lynne <chriskl(at)familyhealth(dot)com(dot)au>
To: Christopher Kings-Lynne <chriskl(at)familyhealth(dot)com(dot)au>
Cc: Hackers <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Bug in DROP NOT NULL
Date: 2005-03-31 12:53:53
Message-ID: 424BF2E1.7040303@familyhealth.com.au
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Sorry, was in a rush before. I still don't have time to fix this for
8.0.2, so that's why I rushed out the report. Here is a full description...

> You can drop a NOT NULL on a column, even if that column is part of an
> index that is clustered, where the index does not index NULLs.

First, install tsearch2...

test=# create table test (a tsvector);
CREATE TABLE
test=# create index test_gist_idx on test using gist (a);
CREATE INDEX
test=# \d test
Table "public.test"
Column | Type | Modifiers
--------+----------+-----------
a | tsvector |
Indexes:
"test_gist_idx" gist (a)

test=# cluster test_gist_idx on test;
ERROR: cannot cluster when index access method does not handle null values
HINT: You may be able to work around this by marking column "a" NOT NULL.
test=# alter table test alter a set not null;
ALTER TABLE
test=# cluster test_gist_idx on test;
CLUSTER
test=# \d test
Table "public.test"
Column | Type | Modifiers
--------+----------+-----------
a | tsvector | not null
Indexes:
"test_gist_idx" gist (a) CLUSTER

test=# alter table test alter a drop not null;
ALTER TABLE
test=# cluster test_gist_idx on test;
ERROR: cannot cluster when index access method does not handle null values
HINT: You may be able to work around this by marking column "a" NOT NULL.
test=# \d test
Table "public.test"
Column | Type | Modifiers
--------+----------+-----------
a | tsvector |
Indexes:
"test_gist_idx" gist (a) CLUSTER

Note that index is still 'clustered', but unclusterable.

The correct behaviour IMHO is to prevent dropping NOT NULL on a column
that particpates in such an index. (Index access method that does not
handle nulls)

> Also, I dont think that ALTER TABLE blah CLUSTER ON foo; actually warns
> about clustering a non-null indexing index. However, CLUSTER foo ON
> blah; does.

I was wrong about that...

Chris

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