Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2026 09:44:12 -0500
From: Justin Pryzby <pryzby@telsasoft.com>
To: Mihail Nikalayeu <mihailnikalayeu@gmail.com>
Cc: Antonin Houska <ah@cybertec.at>, Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>,
	Amit Kapila <amit.kapila16@gmail.com>,
	Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@alvh.no-ip.org>,
	Srinath Reddy Sadipiralla <srinath2133@gmail.com>,
	Matthias van de Meent <boekewurm+postgres@gmail.com>,
	pgsql-hackers@lists.postgresql.org, Robert Treat <rob@xzilla.net>
Subject: Re: Adding REPACK [concurrently]
Message-ID: <aeJHPNmL4vVy3oPw@pryzbyj2023>
References: <9539.1775724194@localhost>
 <fpr4nsmyy3mpfrm2mijspr44dgol2cjeke5tyznb4btsznxsgx@iifdbfe2wl63>
 <CADzfLwURKVNQ++Dpi7bjoGfj-8pchDQEVex3eWBx0NCYn6TbDQ@mail.gmail.com>
 <rr2hcc5c7cm3xpbi2bniduhvq7pko4fnmykdui2wns2pvowk4n@nod4copoefzs>
 <112208.1776173876@localhost>
 <aixbxaenmbvsaarnxpagkgajv25zpc4ogo6gwv7lr7bbrh3arp@xom2lyvdgccf>
 <25514.1776264611@localhost>
 <ikqtl3utsa3er2mfz2oyjv5ofjmlxfhtkolwh5fyfotsmykhqx@rnm3d7e46tjb>
 <38385.1776277704@localhost>
 <CADzfLwUOnargQe+rpTC5tFUOj+yNj01qJM42PAgi2CiMpZn3tw@mail.gmail.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
In-Reply-To: 
 <CADzfLwUOnargQe+rpTC5tFUOj+yNj01qJM42PAgi2CiMpZn3tw@mail.gmail.com>
Archived-At: 
 <https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/aeJHPNmL4vVy3oPw%40pryzbyj2023>
Precedence: bulk

I had trouble testing this at first:

postgres=# REPACK (CONCURRENTLY) users;
ERROR:  42501: permission denied to use replication slots
DETAIL:  Only roles with the REPLICATION attribute may use replication slots.
CONTEXT:  REPACK decoding worker
LOCATION:  CheckSlotPermissions, slot.c:1697

That's surprising, since it was run as a superuser.

It turns out that repack runs as the owner of the table, and the table
*owner* needs to have REPLICATION -- regardless of who runs the command.

I imagine people have been testing with one user, that both owns the
table and invokes REPACK.  Maybe this just needs to be clarified in the
documentation/error message?

-- 
Justin