Re: BUG: pg_class.relchecks overflow, making table undroppable - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Bertrand Drouvot
Subject Re: BUG: pg_class.relchecks overflow, making table undroppable
Date
Msg-id arYzwtRf+S9h5UQm@bdtpg
Whole thread
In response to Re: BUG: pg_class.relchecks overflow, making table undroppable  (Michael Paquier <michael@paquier.xyz>)
Responses Re: BUG: pg_class.relchecks overflow, making table undroppable
Re: BUG: pg_class.relchecks overflow, making table undroppable
List pgsql-hackers
Hi,

On Fri, Sep 25, 2026 at 07:59:22AM +0900, Michael Paquier wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 24, 2026 at 07:03:45PM +0200, Matthias van de Meent wrote:
> > This causes various issues, such as possible WARNING spam to users
> > that need to load that relation into relcache, and an inability to
> > drop the relation because dropping the table requires the constraints
> > to be dropped first, and dropping a constraint decrements the counter
> > that has a check is in place to avoid the counter ever dropping below
> > zero (with an error if you try to decrement non-positive counter
> > values).
> > 
> > I think we should forbid creating such large amounts of CHECK
> > constraints (as attached, backpatch-safe), or drop the "relchecks"
> > field wholesale/replace it with a 'haschecks' field.
> > 
> > Also attached is an SQL script that shows the issue, and which doesn't
> > fail in the unsafe manner once PG is patched with the attached patch.
> 
> Ahah, fun one!  That's in the same line as the recent trigger fix in
> b99b74144f9f where catalogs could overflow.  Even if it's something
> that people would not do in practice, this deserves a backpatch.

+1

Just a few comments:

=== 1

It needs a rebase due to 926627bf902

=== 2

+                    ereport(ERROR,
+                            errmsg("too many check constraints on relation \"%s\"",
+                                   RelationGetQualifiedRelationName(rel)));


I think ERRCODE_PROGRAM_LIMIT_EXCEEDED would be appropriate here?

=== 3

                 numchecks++;
+
+                if (numchecks >= PG_INT16_MAX)
+                    ereport(ERROR,
+                            errmsg("too many check constraints on relation \"%s\"",
+                                   RelationGetQualifiedRelationName(rel)));

I wonder if it wouldn't make more sense to check numchecks >= PG_INT16_MAX before
calling StoreRelCheck()? That would avoid inserting the constraint, recording its
dependencies and invoking the post create hook for an object that will be rejected.

Regards,

-- 
Bertrand Drouvot
PostgreSQL Contributors Team
RDS Open Source Databases
Amazon Web Services: https://aws.amazon.com



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