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1.5 ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES

Name

ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES -- define default access privileges

Synopsis

ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES
    [ FOR { ROLE | USER } target_role [, ...] ]
    [ IN SCHEMA schema_name [, ...] ]
    abbreviated_grant_or_revoke

where abbreviated_grant_or_revoke is one of:

GRANT { { SELECT | INSERT | UPDATE | DELETE | TRUNCATE |
 REFERENCES | TRIGGER }
    [,...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON TABLES
    TO { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...] [ WITH GRANT
 OPTION ]

GRANT { { USAGE | SELECT | UPDATE }
    [,...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON SEQUENCES
    TO { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...] [ WITH GRANT
 OPTION ]

GRANT { EXECUTE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON FUNCTIONS
    TO { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...] [ WITH GRANT
 OPTION ]

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
    { { SELECT | INSERT | UPDATE | DELETE | TRUNCATE |
 REFERENCES | TRIGGER }
    [,...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON TABLES
    FROM { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
    { { USAGE | SELECT | UPDATE }
    [,...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON SEQUENCES
    FROM { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
    { EXECUTE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON FUNCTIONS
    FROM { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

Description

ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES allows you to set the privileges that will be applied to objects created in the future. (It does not affect privileges assigned to already-existing objects.) Currently, only the privileges for tables (including views), sequences, and functions can be altered.

You can change default privileges only for objects that will be created by yourself or by roles that you are a member of. The privileges can be set globally (i.e., for all objects created in the current database), or just for objects created in specified schemas. Default privileges that are specified per-schema are added to whatever the global default privileges are for the particular object type.

As explained under GRANT, the default privileges for any object type normally grant all grantable permissions to the object owner, and may grant some privileges to PUBLIC as well. However, this behavior can be changed by altering the global default privileges with ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES.

Parameters

target_role

The name of an existing role of which the current role is a member. If FOR ROLE is omitted, the current role is assumed.

schema_name

The name of an existing schema. Each target_role must have CREATE privileges for each specified schema. If IN SCHEMA is omitted, the global default privileges are altered.

role_name

The name of an existing role to grant or revoke privileges for. This parameter, and all the other parameters in abbreviated_grant_or_revoke, act as described under GRANT or REVOKE, except that one is setting permissions for a whole class of objects rather than specific named objects.

Notes

Use psql's \ddp command to obtain information about existing assignments of default privileges. The meaning of the privilege values is the same as explained for \dp under GRANT.

If you wish to drop a role for which the default privileges have been altered, it is necessary to reverse the changes in its default privileges or use DROP OWNED BY to get rid of the default privileges entry for the role.

Examples

Grant SELECT privilege to everyone for all tables (and views) you subsequently create in schema myschema, and allow role webuser to INSERT into them too:

ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA myschema GRANT SELECT ON 
  TABLES TO PUBLIC;
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA myschema GRANT INSERT ON 
  TABLES TO webuser;

Undo the above, so that subsequently-created tables won't have any more permissions than normal:

ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA myschema REVOKE SELECT ON 
  TABLES FROM PUBLIC;
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA myschema REVOKE INSERT ON 
  TABLES FROM webuser;

Remove the public EXECUTE permission that is normally granted on functions, for all functions subsequently created by role admin:

ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES FOR ROLE admin REVOKE EXECUTE ON 
  FUNCTIONS FROM PUBLIC;

Compatibility

There is no ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES statement in the SQL standard.

See Also

GRANT, REVOKE