Remove support for postfix (right-unary) operators.

This feature has been a thorn in our sides for a long time, causing
many grammatical ambiguity problems.  It doesn't seem worth the
pain to continue to support it, so remove it.

There are some follow-on improvements we can make in the grammar,
but this commit only removes the bare minimum number of productions,
plus assorted backend support code.

Note that pg_dump and psql continue to have full support, since
they may be used against older servers.  However, pg_dump warns
about postfix operators.  There is also a check in pg_upgrade.

Documentation-wise, I (tgl) largely removed the "left unary"
terminology in favor of saying "prefix operator", which is
a more standard and IMO less confusing term.

I included a catversion bump, although no initial catalog data
changes here, to mark the boundary at which oprkind = 'r'
stopped being valid in pg_operator.

Mark Dilger, based on work by myself and Robert Haas;
review by John Naylor

Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/38ca86db-42ab-9b48-2902-337a0d6b8311@2ndquadrant.com

1 files changed, 10 insertions, 28 deletions

diff --git a/src/backend/parser/parse_expr.c b/src/backend/parser/parse_expr.c
index f69976cc8c9..d24420c5831 100644
--- a/src/backend/parser/parse_expr.c
+++ b/src/backend/parser/parse_expr.c
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ bool		Transform_null_equals = false;
 #define PREC_GROUP_NOT_LIKE		9	/* NOT LIKE/ILIKE/SIMILAR */
 #define PREC_GROUP_NOT_BETWEEN	10	/* NOT BETWEEN */
 #define PREC_GROUP_NOT_IN		11	/* NOT IN */
-#define PREC_GROUP_POSTFIX_OP	12	/* generic postfix operators */
+#define PREC_GROUP_ANY_ALL		12	/* ANY/ALL */
 #define PREC_GROUP_INFIX_OP		13	/* generic infix operators */
 #define PREC_GROUP_PREFIX_OP	14	/* generic prefix operators */
 
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ bool		Transform_null_equals = false;
  * 4. LIKE ILIKE SIMILAR
  * 5. BETWEEN
  * 6. IN
- * 7. generic postfix Op
+ * 7. ANY ALL
  * 8. generic Op, including <= => <>
  * 9. generic prefix Op
  * 10. IS tests (NullTest, BooleanTest, etc)
@@ -1031,7 +1031,7 @@ transformAExprOpAny(ParseState *pstate, A_Expr *a)
 	Node	   *rexpr = a->rexpr;
 
 	if (operator_precedence_warning)
-		emit_precedence_warnings(pstate, PREC_GROUP_POSTFIX_OP,
+		emit_precedence_warnings(pstate, PREC_GROUP_ANY_ALL,
 								 strVal(llast(a->name)),
 								 lexpr, NULL,
 								 a->location);
@@ -1054,7 +1054,7 @@ transformAExprOpAll(ParseState *pstate, A_Expr *a)
 	Node	   *rexpr = a->rexpr;
 
 	if (operator_precedence_warning)
-		emit_precedence_warnings(pstate, PREC_GROUP_POSTFIX_OP,
+		emit_precedence_warnings(pstate, PREC_GROUP_ANY_ALL,
 								 strVal(llast(a->name)),
 								 lexpr, NULL,
 								 a->location);
@@ -2019,7 +2019,7 @@ transformSubLink(ParseState *pstate, SubLink *sublink)
 										 sublink->testexpr, NULL,
 										 sublink->location);
 			else
-				emit_precedence_warnings(pstate, PREC_GROUP_POSTFIX_OP,
+				emit_precedence_warnings(pstate, PREC_GROUP_ANY_ALL,
 										 strVal(llast(sublink->operName)),
 										 sublink->testexpr, NULL,
 										 sublink->location);
@@ -3244,28 +3244,11 @@ operator_precedence_group(Node *node, const char **nodename)
 				group = PREC_GROUP_PREFIX_OP;
 			}
 		}
-		else if (aexpr->kind == AEXPR_OP &&
-				 aexpr->lexpr != NULL &&
-				 aexpr->rexpr == NULL)
-		{
-			/* postfix operator */
-			if (list_length(aexpr->name) == 1)
-			{
-				*nodename = strVal(linitial(aexpr->name));
-				group = PREC_GROUP_POSTFIX_OP;
-			}
-			else
-			{
-				/* schema-qualified operator syntax */
-				*nodename = "OPERATOR()";
-				group = PREC_GROUP_POSTFIX_OP;
-			}
-		}
 		else if (aexpr->kind == AEXPR_OP_ANY ||
 				 aexpr->kind == AEXPR_OP_ALL)
 		{
 			*nodename = strVal(llast(aexpr->name));
-			group = PREC_GROUP_POSTFIX_OP;
+			group = PREC_GROUP_ANY_ALL;
 		}
 		else if (aexpr->kind == AEXPR_DISTINCT ||
 				 aexpr->kind == AEXPR_NOT_DISTINCT)
@@ -3356,7 +3339,7 @@ operator_precedence_group(Node *node, const char **nodename)
 			else
 			{
 				*nodename = strVal(llast(s->operName));
-				group = PREC_GROUP_POSTFIX_OP;
+				group = PREC_GROUP_ANY_ALL;
 			}
 		}
 	}
@@ -3432,9 +3415,8 @@ emit_precedence_warnings(ParseState *pstate,
 	 * Complain if left child, which should be same or higher precedence
 	 * according to current rules, used to be lower precedence.
 	 *
-	 * Exception to precedence rules: if left child is IN or NOT IN or a
-	 * postfix operator, the grouping is syntactically forced regardless of
-	 * precedence.
+	 * Exception to precedence rules: if left child is IN or NOT IN the
+	 * grouping is syntactically forced regardless of precedence.
 	 */
 	cgroup = operator_precedence_group(lchild, &copname);
 	if (cgroup > 0)
@@ -3442,7 +3424,7 @@ emit_precedence_warnings(ParseState *pstate,
 		if (oldprecedence_l[cgroup] < oldprecedence_r[opgroup] &&
 			cgroup != PREC_GROUP_IN &&
 			cgroup != PREC_GROUP_NOT_IN &&
-			cgroup != PREC_GROUP_POSTFIX_OP &&
+			cgroup != PREC_GROUP_ANY_ALL &&
 			cgroup != PREC_GROUP_POSTFIX_IS)
 			ereport(WARNING,
 					(errmsg("operator precedence change: %s is now lower precedence than %s",