Re: BUG #17127: drop column cann't delete from pg_attribute, so it will up to 1600 limits soon

On Thu, 29 Jul 2021 at 16:08, David G. Johnston
<david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Jul 28, 2021 at 8:04 PM PG Bug reporting form <noreply(at)postgresql(dot)org> wrote:
>> HI, postgresql drop column cann't delete from pg_attribute, so it will up to
>> 1600 limits soon when add and drop column frequenc.
>>
>
> Yes, this fact is explicitly documented. See the last paragraph here:
>
> https://www.postgresql.org/docs/13/limits.html
>
> So, it is not a bug, and, IMO, it is not a limitation worth removing.

I'm not sure if I agree that it's "explicitly documented". All that
text mentions is that you can't have more than 1600 columns in a table
at once. What the OP is complaining about are that attnums are not
recycled and that if you continually add and drop columns you can run
out well before you have 1600 columns.

David