Documentation Bug related to Inheritance

Hi, i've posted various problems regarding inheritance in postgres,
Never see a reply :(

Well, beside the referential constraint issue ( that can be solved by
hand ), the most frustrating is that queries like

DELETE FROM table* where key = some_value

Fails ( parser error ). ( UPDATE either )

I you have some direct contact with the developers please forward this
issue.

Thanx.

Danilo Gonzalez Hashimoto writes:
> Inheritance is one of the most useful and 'marketed' features in PostgreSQL.
> However its behavior is not what one expected it to be. Inherited tables do
> not inherit some constraints, including primary and foreing keys.
> This information is very important, specially for newbies, who can get very
> frustated by referential integrity violation happening when they would not
> be expected to happen, and vice versa.
> The mailing lists have many questions related to it, including:
>
> http://fts.postgresql.org/db/mw/msg.html?mid=118834
> where Peter Eisentraut remommends one NOT TO mix inheritance
> and foreing keys;
> http://fts.postgresql.org/db/mw/msg.html?mid=1022481
> where Stephan Szabo advices the reader to see past discussion in the
> GENERAL list for more information
> and http://fts.postgresql.org/db/mw/msg.html?mid=122007
> where Bruce Momjian adds this issue to the TODO list.
>
> Looking for past discussions in the lists require too much work, since this
> is a very popular question. ( you find a lot of questions and answers, but
> those only tells the reader 'Currently you can't do that' )
> I would suggest this question (referential integrity in inherited tables) to
> be added to the FAQ, since in think it is a bug in the documentation.
> Perhaps it would also be useful a documentation page (probably the inheritance
> one - http://www.postgresql.org/idocs/index.php?inherit.html) warning the
> reader about this particular issue.
> Additionally, this page should help the user to work through it telling how
> to use inheritance and primary keys, using the current postgreSQL features
> (rules, triggers, inheritance itself, etc.) or the 'pure' referential model.
>
> A simple example of the problem follows:
>
> CREATE TABLE student (
> id serial,
> name varchar(35),
> email varchar(25),
> UNIQUE ( email ),
> PRIMARY KEY ( id ) );
>
> CREATE TABLE graduate (
> thesisname varchar (100)
> ) INHERITS ( student );
>
> CREATE TABLE address (
> student int4 REFERENCES student,
> add1 varchar(50),
> add2 varchar(50)
> );
>
>
> testeinh=> INSERT INTO student ( name, email ) VALUES ( 'Danilo', 'danilogh(at)comp' );
> INSERT 28259 1
>
> -- *************[ Cannot duplicate UNIQUE value, as expected ]*****************
> testeinh=> INSERT INTO student ( name, email ) VALUES ( 'Another Danilo', 'danilogh(at)comp' );
> ERROR: Cannot insert a duplicate key into unique index student_email_key
>
> -- *************[ Should stop duplicating UNIQUE value, defined in student ]***
> -- *************[ Strange behavior: must be documented ]***********************
> testeinh=> INSERT INTO graduate ( name, email ) VALUES ( 'Yet Anothe Danilo', 'danilogh(at)comp' );
> INSERT 28261 1
>
> -- *************[ Duplicated UNIQUE field: 'broken' referential integrity ]****
> testeinh=> SELECT * FROM student*;
> id | name | email
> ----+-------------------+---------------
> 1 | Danilo | danilogh(at)comp
> 3 | Yet Anothe Danilo | danilogh(at)comp
> (2 rows)
>
> -- *************[ Referential integrity tested, and OK ]*********************
> testeinh=> INSERT INTO address ( student, add1 ) VALUES ( 1, 'Some Street' );
> INSERT 28262 1
>
> -- *************[ No id=2 in table: normal behavior ]*************************
> testeinh=> INSERT INTO address ( student, add1 ) VALUES ( 2, 'Some Other Street' );
> ERROR: <unnamed> referential integrity violation - key referenced from address not found in student
>
> -- *************[ Should allow inclusion, since id=3 exists for table inherited from student ]***********
> -- *************[ Strange behavior: must be documented ]***********************
> testeinh=> INSERT INTO address ( student, add1 ) VALUES ( 3, 'Some Other Street' );
> ERROR: <unnamed> referential integrity violation - key referenced from address not found in student
>
> Sorry my broken English, I'd be glad to explain better any confusing passage.
> Regards,
>
> Danilo Hashimoto
>
>
>
> ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> TIP 5: Have you checked our extensive FAQ?
>
> http://www.postgresql.org/users-lounge/docs/faq.html
>