Re: First draft of PG 17 release notes

On Wed, Sep 11, 2024 at 07:50:40PM +0200, Álvaro Herrera wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I noticed that these two items in the current notes are separate:
>
> <!--
> Author: Alvaro Herrera <alvherre(at)alvh(dot)no-ip(dot)org>
> 2024-03-25 [374c7a229] Allow specifying an access method for partitioned tables
> Author: Alvaro Herrera <alvherre(at)alvh(dot)no-ip(dot)org>
> 2024-03-28 [e2395cdbe] ALTER TABLE: rework determination of access method ID
> -->
>
> <listitem>
> <para>
> Allow specification of partitioned <link linkend="tableam">table
> access methods</link> (Justin Pryzby, Soumyadeep Chakraborty,
> Michael Paquier)
> </para>
> </listitem>
>
> <!--
> Author: Michael Paquier <michael(at)paquier(dot)xyz>
> 2024-03-08 [d61a6cad6] Add support for DEFAULT in ALTER TABLE .. SET ACCESS MET
> -->
>
> <listitem>
> <para>
> Add <literal>DEFAULT</literal> setting for <literal>ALTER TABLE
> .. SET ACCESS METHOD</literal> (Michael Paquier)
> </para>
> </listitem>
>
> They are very very closely related, so I suggest they should be
> together as a single item. Also, the first one is somewhat strangely
> worded IMO (we don't have "partitioned table access methods" -- rather,
> we have table access methods for partitioned tables). Maybe something
> like

Yes, agree, the wording needs improvement, patch attached.

> * Improve ALTER TABLE ... SET ACCESS METHOD
>
> This command can now also be applied to partitioned tables, so that it
> can <link to "https://www.postgresql.org/docs/17/sql-altertable.html#SQL-ALTERTABLE-DESC-SET-ACCESS-METHOD">
> influence partitions created later</link>. (Justin, Soumyadeep, Michaël)
>
> In addition, it now accepts the value DEFAULT to reset a previously
> set value. (Michaël)

I moved the two items next to each other, but I am concerned combining
the partition feature with the DEFAULT features is just making it too
complicated to understand.

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Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> https://momjian.us
EDB https://enterprisedb.com

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