Saving view turns SELECT * into field list

Hey team – I’m sure this has come up, but my search engine skills couldn’t find an explanation:

Why, when I save a simple view like:

SELECT * FROM a_table

…does PostgreSQL turn the * into a field list like:

SELECT field1, field2, field3, field4 FROM a_table

?

This is super-frustrating, as it means I’ll have to manually change an aggregating “parent” view’s select lists every time I change the “child” views.

Thanks for any info. -Ben
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