Re: Unclear on Publication documentation page

On Sat, May 18, 2024, at 5:44 PM, PG Doc comments form wrote:
> The page in question:
> https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/logical-replication-publication.html
>
> It says:
>
> "If a table without a replica identity is added to a publication that
> replicates UPDATE or DELETE operations then subsequent UPDATE or DELETE
> operations will cause an error on the publisher. INSERT operations can
> proceed regardless of any replica identity."
>
> The text is ambiguous as to what is meant by "the publisher" in "will cause
> an error on the publisher". I've personally never set up logical
> replication, which is why I'm reading the documentation now.
>
> The question for me is: Does "the publisher" refer to a logical entity,
> created by the "CREATE PUBLICATION " command? And further publication in the
> publication<->subscriber model will not work anymore? Or does it refer to
> the actual database itself, and will the functionality of the database be
> impacted? As in: your live production database can now no longer process
> UPDATE and DELETE statements so long as that publication exists/so long as
> that publication is configured to publish that particular table?

The first paragraph in the referred URL says

The node where a publication is defined is referred to as publisher.

And [2] defines the logical replication model:

Logical replication uses a publish and subscribe model with one or more
subscribers subscribing to one or more publications on a publisher node.

Unless there is a documentation bug or you want to suggest changes to any part of
the documentation, use pgsql-general for questions instead.

[2] https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/logical-replication.html

--
Euler Taveira
EDB https://www.enterprisedb.com/