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'\" t
.\"     Title: GRANT
.\"    Author: The PostgreSQL Global Development Group
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets vsnapshot <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 2025
.\"    Manual: PostgreSQL 18.0 Documentation
.\"    Source: PostgreSQL 18.0
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "GRANT" "7" "2025" "PostgreSQL 18.0" "PostgreSQL 18.0 Documentation"
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.SH "NAME"
GRANT \- define access privileges
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.sp
.nf
GRANT { { SELECT | INSERT | UPDATE | DELETE | TRUNCATE | REFERENCES | TRIGGER | MAINTAIN }
    [, \&.\&.\&.] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON { [ TABLE ] \fItable_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
         | ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA \fIschema_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] }
    TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

GRANT { { SELECT | INSERT | UPDATE | REFERENCES } ( \fIcolumn_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] )
    [, \&.\&.\&.] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] ( \fIcolumn_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] ) }
    ON [ TABLE ] \fItable_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

GRANT { { USAGE | SELECT | UPDATE }
    [, \&.\&.\&.] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON { SEQUENCE \fIsequence_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
         | ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA \fIschema_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] }
    TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

GRANT { { CREATE | CONNECT | TEMPORARY | TEMP } [, \&.\&.\&.] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON DATABASE \fIdatabase_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

GRANT { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON DOMAIN \fIdomain_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

GRANT { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER \fIfdw_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

GRANT { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON FOREIGN SERVER \fIserver_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

GRANT { EXECUTE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON { { FUNCTION | PROCEDURE | ROUTINE } \fIroutine_name\fR [ ( [ [ \fIargmode\fR ] [ \fIarg_name\fR ] \fIarg_type\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] ] ) ] [, \&.\&.\&.]
         | ALL { FUNCTIONS | PROCEDURES | ROUTINES } IN SCHEMA \fIschema_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] }
    TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

GRANT { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON LANGUAGE \fIlang_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

GRANT { { SELECT | UPDATE } [, \&.\&.\&.] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON LARGE OBJECT \fIloid\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

GRANT { { SET | ALTER SYSTEM } [, \&.\&.\&. ] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON PARAMETER \fIconfiguration_parameter\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

GRANT { { CREATE | USAGE } [, \&.\&.\&.] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON SCHEMA \fIschema_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

GRANT { CREATE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON TABLESPACE \fItablespace_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

GRANT { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON TYPE \fItype_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

GRANT \fIrole_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] TO \fIrole_specification\fR [, \&.\&.\&.]
    [ WITH { ADMIN | INHERIT | SET } { OPTION | TRUE | FALSE } ]
    [ GRANTED BY \fIrole_specification\fR ]

where \fIrole_specification\fR can be:

    [ GROUP ] \fIrole_name\fR
  | PUBLIC
  | CURRENT_ROLE
  | CURRENT_USER
  | SESSION_USER
.fi
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
The
\fBGRANT\fR
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\&.
.SS "GRANT on Database Objects"
.PP
This variant of the
\fBGRANT\fR
command gives specific privileges on a database object to one or more roles\&. These privileges are added to those already granted, if any\&.
.PP
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\&.
.PP
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\&.
.PP
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\&.
.PP
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\&.)
.PP
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\&.
.PP
The possible privileges are:
.PP
SELECT
.br
INSERT
.br
UPDATE
.br
DELETE
.br
TRUNCATE
.br
REFERENCES
.br
TRIGGER
.br
CREATE
.br
CONNECT
.br
TEMPORARY
.br
EXECUTE
.br
USAGE
.br
SET
.br
ALTER SYSTEM
.br
MAINTAIN
.RS 4
Specific types of privileges, as defined in
Section\ \&5.8\&.
.RE
.PP
TEMP
.RS 4
Alternative spelling for
TEMPORARY\&.
.RE
.PP
ALL PRIVILEGES
.RS 4
Grant all of the privileges available for the object\*(Aqs type\&. The
PRIVILEGES
key word is optional in
PostgreSQL, though it is required by strict SQL\&.
.RE
.PP
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\&.
.PP
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
\fBGRANT\fR
command\&.
ALL FUNCTIONS
also affects aggregate and window functions, but not procedures, again just like the specific\-object
\fBGRANT\fR
command\&. Use
ALL ROUTINES
to include procedures\&.
.SS "GRANT on Roles"
.PP
This variant of the
\fBGRANT\fR
command grants membership in a role to one or more other roles, and the modification of membership options
SET,
INHERIT, and
ADMIN; see
Section\ \&21.3
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\&.
.PP
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\&.
.PP
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\&.
.PP
The
INHERIT
option controls the inheritance status of the new membership; see
Section\ \&21.3
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 creating a new role membership, this defaults to the inheritance attribute of the new member\&.
.PP
The
SET
option, if it is set to
TRUE, allows the member to change to the granted role using the
\fBSET ROLE\fR
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\&.
.PP
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\*(Aqs privileges are to be inherited but should not be accessible via
SET ROLE, it should not own any SQL objects\&.
.PP
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\&.
.PP
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
\fIrole_specification\fR\&.
.SH "NOTES"
.PP
The
\fBREVOKE\fR
command is used to revoke access privileges\&.
.PP
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\&.
.PP
A user may perform
\fBSELECT\fR,
\fBINSERT\fR, 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\&.
.PP
When a non\-owner of an object attempts to
\fBGRANT\fR
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
\fBGRANT ALL PRIVILEGES\fR
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\&.)
.PP
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\*(Aqs unwise to operate as a superuser except when absolutely necessary\&.
.PP
If a superuser chooses to issue a
\fBGRANT\fR
or
\fBREVOKE\fR
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\&.)
.PP
\fBGRANT\fR
and
\fBREVOKE\fR
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\&.
.PP
If the role executing
\fBGRANT\fR
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
\fBSET ROLE\fR
to become the specific role you want to do the
\fBGRANT\fR
as\&.
.PP
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\&.
.PP
See
Section\ \&5.8
for more information about specific privilege types, as well as how to inspect objects\*(Aq privileges\&.
.SH "EXAMPLES"
.PP
Grant insert privilege to all users on table
films:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
GRANT INSERT ON films TO PUBLIC;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
Grant all available privileges to user
manuel
on view
kinds:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON kinds TO manuel;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.sp
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\&.
.PP
Grant membership in role
admins
to user
joe:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
GRANT admins TO joe;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.SH "COMPATIBILITY"
.PP
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\&.
.PP
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\*(Aqs privileges as having been granted by the owner to themselves; therefore they can revoke them too\&. In the SQL standard, the owner\*(Aqs privileges are granted by an assumed entity
\(lq_SYSTEM\(rq\&. Not being
\(lq_SYSTEM\(rq, the owner cannot revoke these rights\&.
.PP
According to the SQL standard, grant options can be granted to
PUBLIC; PostgreSQL only supports granting grant options to roles\&.
.PP
The SQL standard allows the
GRANTED BY
option to specify only
CURRENT_USER
or
CURRENT_ROLE\&. The other variants are PostgreSQL extensions\&.
.PP
The SQL standard provides for a
USAGE
privilege on other kinds of objects: character sets, collations, translations\&.
.PP
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
\fBnextval\fR
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)\&.
.PP
Privileges on databases, tablespaces, schemas, languages, and configuration parameters are
PostgreSQL
extensions\&.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
\fBREVOKE\fR(7), ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES (\fBALTER_DEFAULT_PRIVILEGES\fR(7))