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From: shveta malik <shveta.malik@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 2026 09:03:06 +0530
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 <CAJpy0uAd2BY_jinMWscfLr11WHra7sxrNc18jKbkhp=4CkAFig@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Warn on missing replica identity in CREATE/ALTER PUBLICATION
To: =?UTF-8?B?5Y2X5ouT5byl?= <minamitakuya@lifull.com>
Cc: pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org, shveta malik <shveta.malik@gmail.com>
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On Tue, Apr 21, 2026 at 11:06=E2=80=AFAM =E5=8D=97=E6=8B=93=E5=BC=A5 <minam=
itakuya@lifull.com> wrote:
>
> Hi hackers,
>
> CREATE PUBLICATION silently succeeds even when target tables lack a
> usable replica identity, while the publication publishes UPDATE and/or
> DELETE. The error only surfaces later at replication time:
>
>   ERROR: cannot delete from table "foo" because it does not have a
>   replica identity and publishes deletes
>
> This gap has caused real production incidents =E2=80=94 in one case, a CD=
C
> pipeline using FOR TABLES IN SCHEMA included a table without a primary
> key, and replication stalled for hours before the cause was found.
>
> I'd like to propose emitting a WARNING at publication creation/alter
> time when this mismatch exists. The check would cover all paths:
>
> - CREATE PUBLICATION ... FOR TABLE / FOR TABLES IN SCHEMA / FOR ALL TABLE=
S
> - ALTER PUBLICATION ... ADD/SET TABLE / ADD/SET TABLES IN SCHEMA
> - ALTER PUBLICATION ... SET (publish =3D 'update, delete')
>
> The approach I'm considering is a publication-level check that runs
> after the final publication state is known, scanning the effective set
> of published tables via GetIncludedPublicationRelations() /
> GetAllSchemaPublicationRelations() / GetAllPublicationRelations() and
> checking each table's replica identity.
>
> I have a working prototype for the FOR TABLE / ADD TABLE paths. A few
> open questions before I post a full patch:
>
> 1. For FOR ALL TABLES, the check would scan pg_class. Acceptable for
>    a DDL operation, or too expensive?
>
> 2. Should we cap the number of warnings when many tables are affected?
>
> 3. Should this be controllable via a GUC, or is a simple WARNING
>    sufficient?
>
> Thoughts welcome.
>

Before we dive deeper into this idea, I=E2=80=99d like to highlight that
there=E2=80=99s an ongoing thread addressing a similar issue. The proposed
approach there is to implement a fallback RI in such scenarios to
prevent replication-time errors caused by missing RI. Could you please
review this ([1]) and confirm whether it meets your requirements?

https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/flat/CAEoWx2mMorbMwjKbT4YCsjDyL3r9Mp%=
2Bz0bbK57VZ%2BOkJTgJQVQ%40mail.gmail.com

thanks
Shveta