On Mon, Jul 5, 2010 at 2:08 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
> Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org> writes:
>> Is there a reason we don't have t_self as one of the system columns that
>> you can examine from SQL? I'd propose its addition otherwise.
>
> pg_attribute bloat? I'm a bit hesitant to add a row per table for
> something we've gotten along without for so long, especially something
> with as bizarre a definition as "t_self" has got.
>
> At one time I was hoping to get rid of explicit entries in pg_attribute
> for system columns, which would negate this concern. I think we're
> stuck with them now, though, because of per-column permissions.
Because someone might want to grant per-column permissions on those
columns? That seems like an awfully thin reason to keep all that
bloat around. I bet the number of people who have granted per-column
permissions on, say, cmax can be counted on one hand - possibly with
five fingers left over.
--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise Postgres Company
