Hi, We have the Aurora Postgres database. And for a table with PK-FK relationships, we have been running into issues while dropping partitions using partman. We have planned to detach and drop the partitions but end up with the below error , so wanted to understand, if this is expected behaviour
Absolutely.
and how to handle it?
ERROR: cannot drop table <table_name>_p20250202 because other objects depend on it CONTEXT: SQL statement "DROP TABLE <table_name>_p20250202" PL/pgSQL function drop_partition_time(text,interval,boolean,boolean,text,timestamp with time zone) line 250 at EXECUTE PL/pgSQL function partman.run_maintenance(text,boolean,boolean) line 336 at assignment DETAIL: constraint <constraint_name>_fkey on table <table_name> depends on table <table_name>_p20250202
Whoever designed your database determined that "orphaned child" records are a bad thing. <constraint_name>_fkey ensures that every "child" record has a "parent" record.
If PG allows you to drop <table_name>_p20250202, then there will be "orphaned children" in your database, but the FK means you don't want orphaned children.
In order to drop <table_name>_p20250202, you must first "dispose of" (aka DELETE) the child records that depend on records in <table_name>_p20250202. If <constraint_name>_fkey points to a table that is partitioned the same way that <table_name>_p20250202 is partitioned, then maybe you can DETACH and then DROP that table full of child records.
