postgres.git / summary / log / commit / refs
commit 8ebbf79a83e4fe87285243dde03b969b81f3439a
Author: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Date: Mon Jun 15 17:07:57 2026 +0000
Doc: reword discussion of asterisk after table names in FROM.
The syntax "tablename *" has been obsolete for years, but we want to
retain it and its documentation for backward compatibility reasons.
However, the documentation wording was confusing and could be
understood to mean that "tablename *" is the same as "ONLY tablename".
Reported-by: Jochen Bandhauer <jochen.bandhauer@gmx.net>
Author: Laurenz Albe <laurenz.albe@cybertec.at>
Reviewed-by: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/178125831604.1285960.8250607197280951685@wrigleys.postgresql.org
doc/src/sgml/queries.sgml | 12 +++++++-----
1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/queries.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/queries.sgml
index ec4ca01cd16..d8d4c3c53ef 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/queries.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/queries.sgml
@@ -143,11 +143,13 @@ FROM <replaceable>table_reference</replaceable> <optional>, <replaceable>table_r
</para>
<para>
- Instead of writing <literal>ONLY</literal> before the table name, you can write
- <literal>*</literal> after the table name to explicitly specify that descendant
- tables are included. There is no real reason to use this syntax any more,
- because searching descendant tables is now always the default behavior.
- However, it is supported for compatibility with older releases.
+ You can write <literal>*</literal> after the table name to explicitly
+ specify that descendant tables are included, which is the opposite of
+ <literal>ONLY</literal>. There is no real reason to write
+ <literal>*</literal> any more, because searching descendant tables has
+ been the default behavior since <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
+ version 10. However, it remains supported for compatibility with older
+ releases.
</para>
<sect3 id="queries-join">