Re: PG 18 release notes draft committed

On Sun, May 4, 2025 at 01:35:30PM +0200, Álvaro Herrera wrote:
> Regarding these items
>
> * Allow ALTER TABLE to set the NOT VALID attribute of NOT NULL constraints
> (Rushabh Lathia, Jian He)
>
> * Allow NOT VALID foreign key constraints on partitioned tables (Amul Sul)
>
> * Allow modification of the inheritability of constraints (Suraj Kharage, Álvaro Herrera)
>
> The syntax is ALTER TABLE ... ALTER CONSTRAINT ... [NO] INHERIT.
>
> * Store column NOT NULL specifications in pg_constraint (Álvaro Herrera, Bernd Helmle)
>
> This allows names to be specified for NOT NULL constraint. This also adds NOT
> NULL constraints to foreign tables and NOT NULL inheritance control to local
> tables.
>
>
> I think the wording and order of them is a bit unclear. I would put the
> last item first, immediately followed by the other two; alternatively we
> could merge them all into a single one:

I moved the last item to first in the group.

> * Store NOT NULL constraints in pg_constraint for better preservability
> (Álvaro, Bernd, Suraj, Rushabh, Jian)
>
> The constraint names are well defined and are preserved across
> dump/restore. Also, the NOT VALID and NO INHERIT properties work
> as expected and can be modified by users via ALTER TABLE.
>
> Or something along those lines.

I think the merged text is too confusing.

> This one in particular:
> Allow modification of the inheritability of constraints (Suraj Kharage, Álvaro Herrera)
>
> The syntax is ALTER TABLE ... ALTER CONSTRAINT ... [NO] INHERIT.
>
> only works with not-null constraints, which is why I suggest to merge
> together with the above item. Ideally, on the next release somebody
> would work to make that feature more general (work with other types of
> constraints).

Yes, I see that detail in the docs of the first commit, and in the second commit
text. I modified to say NOT NULL.

>
> I think this item
> Allow CHECK and foreign key constraints to be specified as NOT ENFORCED
> (Amul Sul)
>
> This also adds column pg_constraint.conenforced.
>
> should come second or maybe even first in that section, as it is I think
> the most user-visible.

I made it second.

> These two items
> Allow NOT VALID foreign key constraints on partitioned tables (Amul Sul)
>
> Allow dropping of constraints ONLY on partitioned tables (Álvaro Herrera)
>
> This was previously erroneously prohibited.
>
> can mostly be considered bug-fixes, so they should be last in the
> section; they aren't new features, just making existing features work
> correctly. The one I have second is I think of lesser importance.

Agreed, moved as you suggested. I have trouble figuring out the
importance sometimes, and this section is very large.

Patch attached.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> https://momjian.us
EDB https://enterprisedb.com

Do not let urgent matters crowd out time for investment in the future.