Chapter 52. System Catalogs

   Table of Contents

   52.1. Overview
   52.2. pg_aggregate
   52.3. pg_am
   52.4. pg_amop
   52.5. pg_amproc
   52.6. pg_attrdef
   52.7. pg_attribute
   52.8. pg_authid
   52.9. pg_auth_members
   52.10. pg_cast
   52.11. pg_class
   52.12. pg_collation
   52.13. pg_constraint
   52.14. pg_conversion
   52.15. pg_database
   52.16. pg_db_role_setting
   52.17. pg_default_acl
   52.18. pg_depend
   52.19. pg_description
   52.20. pg_enum
   52.21. pg_event_trigger
   52.22. pg_extension
   52.23. pg_foreign_data_wrapper
   52.24. pg_foreign_server
   52.25. pg_foreign_table
   52.26. pg_index
   52.27. pg_inherits
   52.28. pg_init_privs
   52.29. pg_language
   52.30. pg_largeobject
   52.31. pg_largeobject_metadata
   52.32. pg_namespace
   52.33. pg_opclass
   52.34. pg_operator
   52.35. pg_opfamily
   52.36. pg_parameter_acl
   52.37. pg_partitioned_table
   52.38. pg_policy
   52.39. pg_proc
   52.40. pg_publication
   52.41. pg_publication_namespace
   52.42. pg_publication_rel
   52.43. pg_range
   52.44. pg_replication_origin
   52.45. pg_rewrite
   52.46. pg_seclabel
   52.47. pg_sequence
   52.48. pg_shdepend
   52.49. pg_shdescription
   52.50. pg_shseclabel
   52.51. pg_statistic
   52.52. pg_statistic_ext
   52.53. pg_statistic_ext_data
   52.54. pg_subscription
   52.55. pg_subscription_rel
   52.56. pg_tablespace
   52.57. pg_transform
   52.58. pg_trigger
   52.59. pg_ts_config
   52.60. pg_ts_config_map
   52.61. pg_ts_dict
   52.62. pg_ts_parser
   52.63. pg_ts_template
   52.64. pg_type
   52.65. pg_user_mapping

   The system catalogs are the place where a relational database
   management system stores schema metadata, such as information about
   tables and columns, and internal bookkeeping information. PostgreSQL's
   system catalogs are regular tables. You can drop and recreate the
   tables, add columns, insert and update values, and severely mess up
   your system that way. Normally, one should not change the system
   catalogs by hand, there are normally SQL commands to do that. (For
   example, CREATE DATABASE inserts a row into the pg_database catalog —
   and actually creates the database on disk.) There are some exceptions
   for particularly esoteric operations, but many of those have been made
   available as SQL commands over time, and so the need for direct
   manipulation of the system catalogs is ever decreasing.