Re: BUG #18516: Foreign key data integrity is not validated when reenabled the trigger on tables

Thank you Alvaro for your feedback.

Your suggestion of introducing a new command, ALTER TABLE .. DISABLE
CONSTRAINT, which can be run by the table owner and paired with a later
ALTER TABLE ENABLE CONSTRAINT, is a thoughtful approach. It would allow for
more controlled management of constraints while maintaining data integrity.

On Thu, Jun 20, 2024 at 6:37 PM Alvaro Herrera <alvherre(at)alvh(dot)no-ip(dot)org>
wrote:

> On 2024-Jun-20, Mujjamil k wrote:
>
> > Thank you, Laurenz, for your valuable feedback. If the enabling system
> > trigger doesn’t check the data integrity with the parent table, then this
> > syntax (ALTER TABLE DISABLE/ENABLE TRIGGER *ALL*) should be removed from
> > PostgreSQL. Otherwise, it will create confusion for the users.
>
> Well, we're not doing that.
>
> This is documented; the page
> https://www.postgresql.org/docs/devel/sql-altertable.html
> contains, under "DISABLE/ENABLE [ REPLICA | ALWAYS ] TRIGGER", the
> following very explicit text:
>
> : Disabling or enabling internally generated constraint triggers requires
> : superuser privileges; it should be done with caution since of course the
> : integrity of the constraint cannot be guaranteed if the triggers are not
> : executed.
>
> There's a reason you were forced to become superuser in order to do
> this. Anytime you're forced to become superuser, you should take a step
> back and think carefully what you're doing.
>
>
> I think it's not a bad idea to suggest that we could have a new command
> ALTER TABLE .. DISABLE CONSTRAINT, which can be run by the table owner
> and paired with a later ALTER TABLE ENABLE CONSTRAINT, which verifies
> the constraint.
>
> --
> Álvaro Herrera 48°01'N 7°57'E —
> https://www.EnterpriseDB.com/
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