Andreas Berger <4postgres(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> i'm searching for a solution for changing the type of a column, e.g. from
> varchar(128) to varchar(512), without an ACCESS EXCLUSIVE lock.
That specific case (increasing the max length of a varchar column) could
be handled by hacking the pg_attribute.atttypmod entry for the column,
since no change in the actual data is required.
However, I have no idea whether your replication environment would cope
with such a change --- experimenting on a non-production setup would be
highly recommendable.
regards, tom lane