Re: Remove deprecated role membership options from psql help for CREATE USER/GROUP

> On Jan 7, 2026, at 19:06, Japin Li <japinli(at)hotmail(dot)com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 07 Jan 2026 at 18:52, Japin Li <japinli(at)hotmail(dot)com> wrote:
>> On Wed, 07 Jan 2026 at 17:30, Chao Li <li(dot)evan(dot)chao(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
>>>> On Jan 6, 2026, at 18:16, Japin Li <japinli(at)hotmail(dot)com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> When I review [1], I found commit 8e78f0a1 deprecated the IN GROUP and USER
>>>> clauses in CREATE ROLE, and also removed IN GROUP and USER from the psql \h
>>>> CREATE ROLE help output.
>>>>
>>>> However, the psql help for the legacy synonyms CREATE USER and CREATE GROUP
>>>> still lists the deprecated options:
>>>>
>>>> - IN GROUP role_name [, ...]
>>>> - USER role_name [, ...]
>>>>
>>>> postgres=# \h create role
>>>> Command: CREATE ROLE
>>>> Description: define a new database role
>>>> Syntax:
>>>> CREATE ROLE name [ [ WITH ] option [ ... ] ]
>>>>
>>>> where option can be:
>>>>
>>>> SUPERUSER | NOSUPERUSER
>>>> | CREATEDB | NOCREATEDB
>>>> | CREATEROLE | NOCREATEROLE
>>>> | INHERIT | NOINHERIT
>>>> | LOGIN | NOLOGIN
>>>> | REPLICATION | NOREPLICATION
>>>> | BYPASSRLS | NOBYPASSRLS
>>>> | CONNECTION LIMIT connlimit
>>>> | [ ENCRYPTED ] PASSWORD 'password' | PASSWORD NULL
>>>> | VALID UNTIL 'timestamp'
>>>> | IN ROLE role_name [, ...]
>>>> | ROLE role_name [, ...]
>>>> | ADMIN role_name [, ...]
>>>> | SYSID uid
>>>>
>>>> URL: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/sql-createrole.html
>>>>
>>>> postgres=# \h create user
>>>> Command: CREATE USER
>>>> Description: define a new database role
>>>> Syntax:
>>>> CREATE USER name [ [ WITH ] option [ ... ] ]
>>>>
>>>> where option can be:
>>>>
>>>> SUPERUSER | NOSUPERUSER
>>>> | CREATEDB | NOCREATEDB
>>>> | CREATEROLE | NOCREATEROLE
>>>> | INHERIT | NOINHERIT
>>>> | LOGIN | NOLOGIN
>>>> | REPLICATION | NOREPLICATION
>>>> | BYPASSRLS | NOBYPASSRLS
>>>> | CONNECTION LIMIT connlimit
>>>> | [ ENCRYPTED ] PASSWORD 'password' | PASSWORD NULL
>>>> | VALID UNTIL 'timestamp'
>>>> | IN ROLE role_name [, ...]
>>>> | IN GROUP role_name [, ...]
>>>> | ROLE role_name [, ...]
>>>> | ADMIN role_name [, ...]
>>>> | USER role_name [, ...]
>>>> | SYSID uid
>>>>
>>>> URL: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/sql-createuser.html
>>>>
>>>> postgres=# \h create group
>>>> Command: CREATE GROUP
>>>> Description: define a new database role
>>>> Syntax:
>>>> CREATE GROUP name [ [ WITH ] option [ ... ] ]
>>>>
>>>> where option can be:
>>>>
>>>> SUPERUSER | NOSUPERUSER
>>>> | CREATEDB | NOCREATEDB
>>>> | CREATEROLE | NOCREATEROLE
>>>> | INHERIT | NOINHERIT
>>>> | LOGIN | NOLOGIN
>>>> | REPLICATION | NOREPLICATION
>>>> | BYPASSRLS | NOBYPASSRLS
>>>> | CONNECTION LIMIT connlimit
>>>> | [ ENCRYPTED ] PASSWORD 'password' | PASSWORD NULL
>>>> | VALID UNTIL 'timestamp'
>>>> | IN ROLE role_name [, ...]
>>>> | IN GROUP role_name [, ...]
>>>> | ROLE role_name [, ...]
>>>> | ADMIN role_name [, ...]
>>>> | USER role_name [, ...]
>>>> | SYSID uid
>>>>
>>>> URL: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/sql-creategroup.html
>>>>
>>>> Since CREATE USER is documented as equivalent to CREATE ROLE WITH LOGIN, and
>>>> CREATE GROUP is equivalent to CREATE ROLE, their help syntax should remain
>>>> consistent with CREATE ROLE.
>>>>
>>>> I propose removing the deprecated IN GROUP and USER lines from the help text
>>>> of both CREATE USER and CREATE GROUP. This would be a simple documentation
>>>> cleanup that aligns the psql help with current reality and avoids confusing
>>>> users with obsolete syntax.
>>>>
>>>> [1] https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/4c5f895e-3281-48f8-b943-9228b7da6471%40gmail.com
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Japin Li
>>>> ChengDu WenWu Information Technology Co., Ltd.
>>>>
>>>> <v1-0001-Remove-deprecated-role-options-for-CREATE-USER-GR.patch>
>>>
>>>
>>> ```
>>> This commit removes the deprecated IN GROUP and USER lines from the psql
>>> help output for CREATE USER and CREATE GROUP.
>>> ```
>>>
>>> The commit message claims to remove things from psql help output, but the change actually updated the SGML docs. Does the patch miss the change on psql?
>>
>> Hmm, psql's SQL help (\h) output is generated from SGML. See the generator
>> scripts: src/bin/psql/create_*_help.pl.
>>
>
> Sorry, I made a typo, the script is src/bin/psql/create_help.pl.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Japin Li
> ChengDu WenWu Information Technology Co., Ltd.

Good to know. I wasn’t aware of that. Maybe it deserves to mention that in the commit message.

Best regards,
--
Chao Li (Evan)
HighGo Software Co., Ltd.
https://www.highgo.com/