Re: Using ENUM with huge NAMEDATALEN

Hi again,

I am attempting to alter pg_enum.enumlabel to Text, but I seem to run into a
strange permission problem with regards to system tables. I am not allowed
to modify them even if I am a superuser. Some output to make sure I do not
make any novice mistakes:

C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\8.3\bin>psql -d postgres -U postgres
Welcome to psql 8.3.0, the PostgreSQL interactive terminal.

Type: \copyright for distribution terms
\h for help with SQL commands
\? for help with psql commands
\g or terminate with semicolon to execute query
\q to quit

Warning: Console code page (850) differs from Windows code page (1252)
8-bit characters might not work correctly. See psql reference
page "Notes for Windows users" for details.

postgres=# GRANT ALL privileges ON TABLE pg_enum TO postgres;
GRANT
postgres=# alter table pg_enum ALTER COLUMN enumlabel TYPE text;
ERROR: permission denied: "pg_enum" is a system catalog
STATEMENT: alter table pg_enum ALTER COLUMN enumlabel TYPE text;
ERROR: permission denied: "pg_enum" is a system catalog
postgres=# \du
List of roles
Role name | Superuser | Create role | Create DB | Connections | Member of
-----------+-----------+-------------+-----------+-------------+-----------
postgres | yes | yes | yes | no limit | {}
tull | yes | yes | yes | no limit | {}
(2 rows)

postgres=#

Thanks in advance for your help.

Regards,

David

On Sat, Jul 26, 2008 at 11:48 PM, David Andersen <david(at)andersen(dot)gs> wrote:

> Hi Tom,
>
> Thanks a lot for the tip! I will try this. You probably saved be a few days
> of work!
>
> Regards,
>
> David
>
>
> On Sat, Jul 26, 2008 at 11:44 PM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
>
>> "David Andersen" <david(at)andersen(dot)gs> writes:
>> > One of the side tables is text with length of up to 900 characters. My
>> > question is whether I could build PostgreSQL with NAMEDATALEN (which
>> > controls the max size of Enums) equal to 900?
>>
>> I wouldn't recommend it. Consider changing pg_enum.enumlabel to type
>> TEXT instead.
>>
>> regards, tom lane
>>
>>
>>
>