Re: BUG #6370: manual does not discuss transactional DDL

On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 2:52 AM, <ryan(at)cs(dot)utah(dot)edu> wrote:

> This is a documentation bug (or feature request), not a software bug.

For future reference, the pgsql-docs list is probably the best place
for such concerns.

> There seems to be no discussion of transactional DDL in the manual itself
> (that I could find). A brief Google search turned up the following relevant
> pages:
>
>  -
> http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Transactional_DDL_in_PostgreSQL:_A_Competitive_Analysis
>  - http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Why_PostgreSQL_Instead_of_MySQL_2009 (see
> section "Transactional DDL")
>  - http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-advocacy/2007-08/msg00273.php (and
> other messages in that thread)
>
> But I could not find a place in the manual that authoritatively states that
> DDL is transactional. (Such a page should probably also discuss things like
> session variables, etc.)

Note not every DDL command can be run from within a transaction block.
I think the basic documentation strategy has been to add a note on the
docs page for each such command, e.g.
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/sql-vacuum.html
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/sql-createdatabase.html

say "[command] cannot be run inside a transaction block".

I think a mention that transactional DDL is generally possible (and
useful) might be helpful, if there is a suitable spot in the manual.
There was also some agreement on the thread you linked to that
emphasizing this would be a good idea. Did you have a specific spot in
the manual in mind for such a note, or a preferred wording?

Josh