Re: Deleting a table file does not raise an error when the table is touched afterwards, why?

Daniel Westermann <daniel(dot)westermann(at)dbi-services(dot)com> writes:
> Then I delete the file:
> postgres(at)pg_essentials_p1:/u02/pgdata/PG1/base/16422/ [PG1] rm 32809

There's a reason why the database directory is not readable/writable
by unprivileged users: it's to prevent them from doing dumb things
like that. People who do have write access on the database are
assumed to know better.

> Wouldn't it be much more safe to raise an error as soon as the table is touched?

Well, yes, but it would impose huge amounts of overhead in order to
raise an error a bit sooner for a stupid user action. The ideal
thing would be to prevent users from breaking their database in the
first place --- but there's not much we can do in that direction
beyond setting the directory permissions.

regards, tom lane