Re: Fix ALTER TABLE DROP EXPRESSION with inheritance hierarchy

Peter Eisentraut <peter(at)eisentraut(dot)org> writes:
> I find that tablecmds.c uses these two arguments in not entirely
> consistent ways.

> I would have expected that if you write a command that is supposed to
> recurse (no ONLY) and you are some levels down into the recursing, then
> recursing=true, of course, but shouldn't recurse=true as well, to
> reflect the command that was written?

I think the intent was that

(1) recurse = true is an instruction to recurse down to any child
tables that may exist;

(2) recursing = true is a status flag saying we're already not at
the topmost parent table.

There is no situation where we'd recurse but only for a limited
number of levels, so I can't believe that recurse = false with
recursing = true is a valid state.

> But in ATPrepDropExpression(), when you're recursing, then recurse is
> always false. That is hardcoded in the ATPrepCmd() call in
> ATSimpleRecursion(). Does that make sense?

Seems wrong, but I didn't trace through the code.

regards, tom lane