Allow NOT NULL constraints to be added as NOT VALID

This allows them to be added without scanning the table, and validating
them afterwards without holding access exclusive lock on the table after
any violating rows have been deleted or fixed.

Doing ALTER TABLE ... SET NOT NULL for a column that has an invalid
not-null constraint validates that constraint.  ALTER TABLE .. VALIDATE
CONSTRAINT is also supported.  There are various checks on whether an
invalid constraint is allowed in a child table when the parent table has
a valid constraint; this should match what we do for enforced/not
enforced constraints.

pg_attribute.attnotnull is now only an indicator for whether a not-null
constraint exists for the column; whether it's valid or invalid must be
queried in pg_constraint.  Applications can continue to query
pg_attribute.attnotnull as before, but now it's possible that NULL rows
are present in the column even when that's set to true.

For backend internal purposes, we cache the nullability status in
CompactAttribute->attnullability that each tuple descriptor carries
(replacing CompactAttribute.attnotnull, which was a mirror of
Form_pg_attribute.attnotnull).  During the initial tuple descriptor
creation, based on the pg_attribute scan, we set this to UNRESTRICTED if
pg_attribute.attnotnull is false, or to UNKNOWN if it's true; then we
update the latter to VALID or INVALID depending on the pg_constraint
scan.  This flag is also copied when tupledescs are copied.

Comparing tuple descs for equality must also compare the
CompactAttribute.attnullability flag and return false in case of a
mismatch.

pg_dump deals with these constraints by storing the OIDs of invalid
not-null constraints in a separate array, and running a query to obtain
their properties.  The regular table creation SQL omits them entirely.
They are then dealt with in the same way as "separate" CHECK
constraints, and dumped after the data has been loaded.  Because no
additional pg_dump infrastructure was required, we don't bump its
version number.

I decided not to bump catversion either, because the old catalog state
works perfectly in the new world.  (Trying to run with new catalog state
and the old server version would likely run into issues, however.)

System catalogs do not support invalid not-null constraints (because
commit 14e87ffa5c54 didn't allow them to have pg_constraint rows
anyway.)

Author: Rushabh Lathia <rushabh.lathia@gmail.com>
Author: Jian He <jian.universality@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>
Tested-by: Ashutosh Bapat <ashutosh.bapat.oss@gmail.com>
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/CAGPqQf0KitkNack4F5CFkFi-9Dqvp29Ro=EpcWt=4_hs-Rt+bQ@mail.gmail.com

1 files changed, 30 insertions, 16 deletions

diff --git a/src/backend/catalog/pg_constraint.c b/src/backend/catalog/pg_constraint.c
index b97960d2766..2f73085961b 100644
--- a/src/backend/catalog/pg_constraint.c
+++ b/src/backend/catalog/pg_constraint.c
@@ -576,8 +576,8 @@ ChooseConstraintName(const char *name1, const char *name2,
 
 /*
  * Find and return a copy of the pg_constraint tuple that implements a
- * validated not-null constraint for the given column of the given relation.
- * If no such constraint exists, return NULL.
+ * (possibly not valid) not-null constraint for the given column of the
+ * given relation.  If no such constraint exists, return NULL.
  *
  * XXX This would be easier if we had pg_attribute.notnullconstr with the OID
  * of the constraint that implements the not-null constraint for that column.
@@ -606,13 +606,11 @@ findNotNullConstraintAttnum(Oid relid, AttrNumber attnum)
 		AttrNumber	conkey;
 
 		/*
-		 * We're looking for a NOTNULL constraint that's marked validated,
-		 * with the column we're looking for as the sole element in conkey.
+		 * We're looking for a NOTNULL constraint with the column we're
+		 * looking for as the sole element in conkey.
 		 */
 		if (con->contype != CONSTRAINT_NOTNULL)
 			continue;
-		if (!con->convalidated)
-			continue;
 
 		conkey = extractNotNullColumn(conTup);
 		if (conkey != attnum)
@@ -630,9 +628,10 @@ findNotNullConstraintAttnum(Oid relid, AttrNumber attnum)
 }
 
 /*
- * Find and return the pg_constraint tuple that implements a validated
- * not-null constraint for the given column of the given relation.  If
- * no such column or no such constraint exists, return NULL.
+ * Find and return a copy of the pg_constraint tuple that implements a
+ * (possibly not valid) not-null constraint for the given column of the
+ * given relation.
+ * If no such column or no such constraint exists, return NULL.
  */
 HeapTuple
 findNotNullConstraint(Oid relid, const char *colname)
@@ -723,15 +722,19 @@ extractNotNullColumn(HeapTuple constrTup)
  *
  * If no not-null constraint is found for the column, return false.
  * Caller can create one.
+ *
  * If a constraint exists but the connoinherit flag is not what the caller
- * wants, throw an error about the incompatibility.  Otherwise, we adjust
- * conislocal/coninhcount and return true.
- * In the latter case, if is_local is true we flip conislocal true, or do
- * nothing if it's already true; otherwise we increment coninhcount by 1.
+ * wants, throw an error about the incompatibility.  If the desired
+ * constraint is valid but the existing constraint is not valid, also
+ * throw an error about that (the opposite case is acceptable).
+ *
+ * If everything checks out, we adjust conislocal/coninhcount and return
+ * true.  If is_local is true we flip conislocal true, or do nothing if
+ * it's already true; otherwise we increment coninhcount by 1.
  */
 bool
 AdjustNotNullInheritance(Oid relid, AttrNumber attnum,
-						 bool is_local, bool is_no_inherit)
+						 bool is_local, bool is_no_inherit, bool is_notvalid)
 {
 	HeapTuple	tup;
 
@@ -755,6 +758,17 @@ AdjustNotNullInheritance(Oid relid, AttrNumber attnum,
 					errmsg("cannot change NO INHERIT status of NOT NULL constraint \"%s\" on relation \"%s\"",
 						   NameStr(conform->conname), get_rel_name(relid)));
 
+		/*
+		 * Throw an error if the existing constraint is NOT VALID and caller
+		 * wants a valid one.
+		 */
+		if (!is_notvalid && !conform->convalidated)
+			ereport(ERROR,
+					errcode(ERRCODE_OBJECT_NOT_IN_PREREQUISITE_STATE),
+					errmsg("incompatible NOT VALID constraint \"%s\" on relation \"%s\"",
+						   NameStr(conform->conname), get_rel_name(relid)),
+					errhint("You will need to use ALTER TABLE ... VALIDATE CONSTRAINT to validate it."));
+
 		if (!is_local)
 		{
 			if (pg_add_s16_overflow(conform->coninhcount, 1,
@@ -832,7 +846,7 @@ RelationGetNotNullConstraints(Oid relid, bool cooked, bool include_noinh)
 			cooked->attnum = colnum;
 			cooked->expr = NULL;
 			cooked->is_enforced = true;
-			cooked->skip_validation = false;
+			cooked->skip_validation = !conForm->convalidated;
 			cooked->is_local = true;
 			cooked->inhcount = 0;
 			cooked->is_no_inherit = conForm->connoinherit;
@@ -852,7 +866,7 @@ RelationGetNotNullConstraints(Oid relid, bool cooked, bool include_noinh)
 			constr->keys = list_make1(makeString(get_attname(relid, colnum,
 															 false)));
 			constr->is_enforced = true;
-			constr->skip_validation = false;
+			constr->skip_validation = !conForm->convalidated;
 			constr->initially_valid = true;
 			constr->is_no_inherit = conForm->connoinherit;
 			notnulls = lappend(notnulls, constr);