GRANT — define access privileges
GRANT { { SELECT | INSERT | UPDATE | DELETE | TRUNCATE | REFERENCES | TRIGGER }
[, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON { [ TABLE ] table_name [, ...]
| ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA schema_name [, ...] }
TO role_specification [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
GRANT { { SELECT | INSERT | UPDATE | REFERENCES } ( column_name [, ...] )
[, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] ( column_name [, ...] ) }
ON [ TABLE ] table_name [, ...]
TO role_specification [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
GRANT { { USAGE | SELECT | UPDATE }
[, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON { SEQUENCE sequence_name [, ...]
| ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA schema_name [, ...] }
TO role_specification [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
GRANT { { CREATE | CONNECT | TEMPORARY | TEMP } [, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON DATABASE database_name [, ...]
TO role_specification [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
GRANT { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON DOMAIN domain_name [, ...]
TO role_specification [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
GRANT { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER fdw_name [, ...]
TO role_specification [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
GRANT { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON FOREIGN SERVER server_name [, ...]
TO role_specification [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
GRANT { EXECUTE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON { { FUNCTION | PROCEDURE | ROUTINE } routine_name [ ( [ [ argmode ] [ arg_name ] arg_type [, ...] ] ) ] [, ...]
| ALL { FUNCTIONS | PROCEDURES | ROUTINES } IN SCHEMA schema_name [, ...] }
TO role_specification [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
GRANT { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON LANGUAGE lang_name [, ...]
TO role_specification [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
GRANT { { SELECT | UPDATE } [, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON LARGE OBJECT loid [, ...]
TO role_specification [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
GRANT { { SET | ALTER SYSTEM } [, ... ] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON PARAMETER configuration_parameter [, ...]
TO role_specification [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
GRANT { { CREATE | USAGE } [, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON SCHEMA schema_name [, ...]
TO role_specification [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
GRANT { CREATE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON TABLESPACE tablespace_name [, ...]
TO role_specification [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
GRANT { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON TYPE type_name [, ...]
TO role_specification [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
GRANT role_name [, ...] TO role_specification [, ...]
[ WITH { ADMIN | INHERIT | SET } { OPTION | TRUE | FALSE } ]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
where role_specification can be:
[ GROUP ] role_name
| PUBLIC
| CURRENT_ROLE
| CURRENT_USER
| SESSION_USER
The GRANT command has two basic variants: one
that grants privileges on a database object (table, column, view,
foreign table, sequence, database, foreign-data wrapper, foreign server,
function, procedure, procedural language, large object, configuration
parameter, schema, tablespace, or type), and one that grants
membership in a role. These variants are similar in many ways, but
they are different enough to be described separately.
This variant of the GRANT command gives specific
privileges on a database object to
one or more roles. These privileges are added
to those already granted, if any.
The key word PUBLIC indicates that the
privileges are to be granted to all roles, including those that might
be created later. PUBLIC can be thought of as an
implicitly defined group that always includes all roles.
Any particular role will have the sum
of privileges granted directly to it, privileges granted to any role it
is presently a member of, and privileges granted to
PUBLIC.
If WITH GRANT OPTION is specified, the recipient
of the privilege can in turn grant it to others. Without a grant
option, the recipient cannot do that. Grant options cannot be granted
to PUBLIC.
If GRANTED BY is specified, the specified grantor must
be the current user. This clause is currently present in this form only
for SQL compatibility.
There is no need to grant privileges to the owner of an object (usually the user that created it), as the owner has all privileges by default. (The owner could, however, choose to revoke some of their own privileges for safety.)
The right to drop an object, or to alter its definition in any way, is not treated as a grantable privilege; it is inherent in the owner, and cannot be granted or revoked. (However, a similar effect can be obtained by granting or revoking membership in the role that owns the object; see below.) The owner implicitly has all grant options for the object, too.
The possible privileges are:
SELECTINSERTUPDATEDELETETRUNCATEREFERENCESTRIGGERCREATECONNECTTEMPORARYEXECUTEUSAGESETALTER SYSTEMSpecific types of privileges, as defined in Section 5.7.
TEMP
Alternative spelling for TEMPORARY.
ALL PRIVILEGES
Grant all of the privileges available for the object's type.
The PRIVILEGES key word is optional in
PostgreSQL, though it is required by
strict SQL.
The FUNCTION syntax works for plain functions,
aggregate functions, and window functions, but not for procedures;
use PROCEDURE for those.
Alternatively, use ROUTINE to refer to a function,
aggregate function, window function, or procedure regardless of its
precise type.
There is also an option to grant privileges on all objects of the same
type within one or more schemas. This functionality is currently supported
only for tables, sequences, functions, and procedures. ALL
TABLES also affects views and foreign tables, just like the
specific-object GRANT command. ALL
FUNCTIONS also affects aggregate and window functions, but not
procedures, again just like the specific-object GRANT
command. Use ALL ROUTINES to include procedures.
This variant of the GRANT command grants membership
in a role to one or more other roles, and the modification of
membership options SET, INHERIT,
and ADMIN; see Section 22.3
for details. Membership in a role is significant
because it potentially allows access to the privileges granted to a role
to each of its members, and potentially also the ability to make changes
to the role itself. However, the actual permissions conferred depend on
the options associated with the grant. To modify that options of
an existing membership, simply specify the membership with updated
option values.
Each of the options described below can be set to either
TRUE or FALSE. The keyword
OPTION is accepted as a synonym for
TRUE, so that WITH ADMIN OPTION
is a synonym for WITH ADMIN TRUE. When altering
an existing membership the omission of an option results in the current
value being retained.
The ADMIN option allows the member to
in turn grant membership in the role to others, and revoke membership
in the role as well. Without the admin option, ordinary users cannot
do that. A role is not considered to hold WITH ADMIN
OPTION on itself. Database superusers can grant or revoke
membership in any role to anyone. This option defaults to
FALSE.
The INHERIT option controls the inheritance status
of the new membership; see Section 22.3 for
details on inheritance. If it is set to TRUE,
it causes the new member to inherit from the granted role. If
set to FALSE, the new member does not inherit.
If unspecified when create a new role membership this defaults to
the inheritance attribute of the role being added.
The SET option, if it is set to
TRUE, allows the member to change to the granted
role using the
SET ROLE
command. If a role is an indirect member of another role, it can use
SET ROLE to change to that role only if there is a
chain of grants each of which has SET TRUE.
This option defaults to TRUE.
To create an object owned by another role or give ownership of an existing
object to another role, you must have the ability to SET
ROLE to that role; otherwise, commands such as ALTER
... OWNER TO or CREATE DATABASE ... OWNER
will fail. However, a user who inherits the privileges of a role but does
not have the ability to SET ROLE to that role may be
able to obtain full access to the role by manipulating existing objects
owned by that role (e.g. they could redefine an existing function to act
as a Trojan horse). Therefore, if a role's privileges are to be inherited
but should not be accessible via SET ROLE, it should not
own any SQL objects.
If GRANTED BY is specified, the grant is recorded as
having been done by the specified role. A user can only attribute a grant
to another role if they possess the privileges of that role. The role
recorded as the grantor must have ADMIN OPTION on the
target role, unless it is the bootstrap superuser. When a grant is recorded
as having a grantor other than the bootstrap superuser, it depends on the
grantor continuing to possess ADMIN OPTION on the role;
so, if ADMIN OPTION is revoked, dependent grants must
be revoked as well.
Unlike the case with privileges, membership in a role cannot be granted
to PUBLIC. Note also that this form of the command
does not allow the noise word GROUP
in role_specification.
The REVOKE command is used
to revoke access privileges.
Since PostgreSQL 8.1, the concepts of users and
groups have been unified into a single kind of entity called a role.
It is therefore no longer necessary to use the keyword GROUP
to identify whether a grantee is a user or a group. GROUP
is still allowed in the command, but it is a noise word.
A user may perform SELECT, INSERT, etc. on a
column if they hold that privilege for either the specific column or
its whole table. Granting the privilege at the table level and then
revoking it for one column will not do what one might wish: the
table-level grant is unaffected by a column-level operation.
When a non-owner of an object attempts to GRANT privileges
on the object, the command will fail outright if the user has no
privileges whatsoever on the object. As long as some privilege is
available, the command will proceed, but it will grant only those
privileges for which the user has grant options. The GRANT ALL
PRIVILEGES forms will issue a warning message if no grant options are
held, while the other forms will issue a warning if grant options for
any of the privileges specifically named in the command are not held.
(In principle these statements apply to the object owner as well, but
since the owner is always treated as holding all grant options, the
cases can never occur.)
It should be noted that database superusers can access
all objects regardless of object privilege settings. This
is comparable to the rights of root in a Unix system.
As with root, it's unwise to operate as a superuser
except when absolutely necessary.
If a superuser chooses to issue a GRANT or REVOKE
command, the command is performed as though it were issued by the
owner of the affected object. In particular, privileges granted via
such a command will appear to have been granted by the object owner.
(For role membership, the membership appears to have been granted
by the bootstrap superuser.)
GRANT and REVOKE can also be done by a role
that is not the owner of the affected object, but is a member of the role
that owns the object, or is a member of a role that holds privileges
WITH GRANT OPTION on the object. In this case the
privileges will be recorded as having been granted by the role that
actually owns the object or holds the privileges
WITH GRANT OPTION. For example, if table
t1 is owned by role g1, of which role
u1 is a member, then u1 can grant privileges
on t1 to u2, but those privileges will appear
to have been granted directly by g1. Any other member
of role g1 could revoke them later.
If the role executing GRANT holds the required privileges
indirectly via more than one role membership path, it is unspecified
which containing role will be recorded as having done the grant. In such
cases it is best practice to use SET ROLE to become the
specific role you want to do the GRANT as.
Granting permission on a table does not automatically extend
permissions to any sequences used by the table, including
sequences tied to SERIAL columns. Permissions on
sequences must be set separately.
See Section 5.7 for more information about specific privilege types, as well as how to inspect objects' privileges.
Grant insert privilege to all users on table films:
GRANT INSERT ON films TO PUBLIC;
Grant all available privileges to user manuel on view
kinds:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON kinds TO manuel;
Note that while the above will indeed grant all privileges if executed by a
superuser or the owner of kinds, when executed by someone
else it will only grant those permissions for which the someone else has
grant options.
Grant membership in role admins to user joe:
GRANT admins TO joe;
According to the SQL standard, the PRIVILEGES
key word in ALL PRIVILEGES is required. The
SQL standard does not support setting the privileges on more than
one object per command.
PostgreSQL allows an object owner to revoke their
own ordinary privileges: for example, a table owner can make the table
read-only to themselves by revoking their own INSERT,
UPDATE, DELETE, and TRUNCATE
privileges. This is not possible according to the SQL standard. The
reason is that PostgreSQL treats the owner's
privileges as having been granted by the owner to themselves; therefore they
can revoke them too. In the SQL standard, the owner's privileges are
granted by an assumed entity “_SYSTEM”. Not being
“_SYSTEM”, the owner cannot revoke these rights.
According to the SQL standard, grant options can be granted to
PUBLIC; PostgreSQL only supports granting grant options
to roles.
The SQL standard allows the GRANTED BY option to
specify only CURRENT_USER or
CURRENT_ROLE. The other variants are PostgreSQL
extensions.
The SQL standard provides for a USAGE privilege
on other kinds of objects: character sets, collations,
translations.
In the SQL standard, sequences only have a USAGE
privilege, which controls the use of the NEXT VALUE FOR
expression, which is equivalent to the
function nextval in PostgreSQL. The sequence
privileges SELECT and UPDATE are
PostgreSQL extensions. The application of the
sequence USAGE privilege to
the currval function is also a PostgreSQL extension (as
is the function itself).
Privileges on databases, tablespaces, schemas, languages, and configuration parameters are PostgreSQL extensions.