Check constraints on partition parents only?

Hackers;

I just noticed that somewhere between 8.2 and 8.4, an exception is
raised trying to alter table ONLY some_partition_parent ADD CHECK
(foo).

I can understand why it makes sense to handle this as an error.

Howeverin practice on a few systems that I used to manage this would
be a problem.

1. I got into the habit of putting CHECK (false) on the parent table
if it was an always empty base table,

This is just really documentation indicating that this table can't
hold rows and of course, having the partition selector trigger
raise exception if falling through the if/else logic on a new row
insertion enforces the constraint but is less obvious.

Ok, so no real problem here. Just one example.

2. Atypical partitioning implementation where the parent table was for
initial insert/update of "live" records in an OLTP system with high
update/insert ratio. This table was partitioned retroactively in
such a way transparent to the application. The app would
eventually update a row one final time and set a status field to
some terminal status, at which time we'd fire a trigger to move the
row down into a partition. Record expiry took place periodically
by dropping a partition and creating a new one.

In that case, imagine the application user runs with
sql_inheritance to off and so, sees only the live data which
resulted in a huge performance boost. Reporting apps and in fact
all other users ran with sql_inheritance to on as usual and so, see
all the data.

Suppose the status field had several non-terminal values and one or
a few terminal values. The differing check constraints on parent
and child tables made it easy to see the intent and I presume with
constraint_exclusion set to on, let queries on behalf of regular
users that had specified a non-terminal state visit only the tiny
parent table.

Parent might have CHECK (status in (1,2,3)) and children CHECK
(status = 4).

I'll assume not many sites are architected this way but #2 here
shows a more compelling example of why it might be useful to allow
check constraints added to only a partition parent.

Comments?

--
Jerry Sievers
Postgres DBA/Development Consulting
e: postgres(dot)consulting(at)comcast(dot)net
p: 305.321.1144