The sentence really should be written a way that indicates that we're talking about who can execute this particular command, rather than who can manage to accomplish the removal of the object. I don't think it's practical to document the latter. We'd have to include:
- the owner of the table - the superuser - the schema owner, since they could drop the entire schema
At least the schema owner can actually run DROP TABLE. Interestingly, the database owner CANNOT.
The phrase "to execute this command" makes the scope of what follows clear: it's just who can run this command, NOT who might be able by indirect means to get rid of the object. To cover all bases, we could add ", or the superuser" to the end of the sentence.
Example / Proof:
postgres=# select version(); version ----- PostgreSQL 8.4.8 ...[snip] (1 row)
postgres=# create role dbowner login password 'pass'; CREATE ROLE postgres=# create database testdb owner dbowner; CREATE DATABASE testdb=# create role schemaowner login password 'pass'; CREATE ROLE testdb=# create schema testschema; CREATE SCHEMA testdb=# alter schema testschema owner to schemaowner; ALTER SCHEMA testdb=# create role tableowner login password 'pass'; CREATE ROLE testdb=# create table testschema.testtable (val text); CREATE TABLE testdb=# alter table testschema.testtable owner to tableowner; ALTER TABLE testdb=# \c testdb schemaowner Password for user schemaowner: psql (8.4.8) You are now connected to database "testdb" as user "schemaowner".
testdb=> \du schemaowner List of roles Role name | Attributes | Member of -------------+------------+----------- schemaowner | | {}
testdb=> \dt+ testschema.testtable; List of relations Schema | Name | Type | Owner | Size | Description ------------+-----------+-------+------------+---------+------------- testschema | testtable | table | tableowner | 0 bytes | (1 row)
testdb=> \dn+ testschema List of schemas Name | Owner | Access privileges | Description ------------+-------------+-------------------+------------- testschema | schemaowner | | (1 row)
testdb=> drop table testschema.testtable; DROP TABLE
If I try as DB owner:
// reconnect as superuser.
testdb=# create table testschema.testtable (val text); CREATE TABLE testdb=# alter table testschema.testtable owner to tableowner; ALTER TABLE testdb=# \c testdb dbowner; Password for user dbowner: psql (8.4.8) You are now connected to database "testdb" as user "dbowner". testdb=> drop table testschema.testtable; ERROR: permission denied for schema testschema
