Functions used by index don't need to be immutable?

From: hubert depesz lubaczewski <depesz(at)depesz(dot)com>
To: PostgreSQL mailing lists <pgsql-bugs(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Functions used by index don't need to be immutable?
Date: 2025-11-11 12:35:22
Message-ID: aRMtismOfO86U9gS@depesz.com
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Hi,
while researching some blogpost I found that we can make index on
volatile functions.

Tested this code:

CREATE TABLE wiki_docs (
id INT8 generated always as identity PRIMARY KEY,
title TEXT,
body TEXT
);
create function get_tsvector( IN the_row wiki_docs ) returns
tsvector as $$
select
setweight( to_tsvector('english', the_row.title), 'A')
||
setweight( to_tsvector('english', the_row.body),
'B');
$$ language sql;
create index the_magic_gist on wiki_docs using gist( get_tsvector(wiki_docs) );
create index the_magic_gin on wiki_docs using gin( get_tsvector(wiki_docs) );

Ran it in in every Pg from 10 to 19, and it worked.

postgres=# select provolatile from pg_proc where proname = 'get_tsvector';
provolatile
-------------
v
(1 row)

Which seems to contradict part of
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/18/sql-createindex.html
which says:

> All functions and operators used in an index definition must be
> “immutable”,

What am I misunderstanding and/or doing wrong?

Best regards,

depesz

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