Book Image

PostgreSQL Administration Cookbook, 9.5/9.6 Edition - Third Edition

Book Image

PostgreSQL Administration Cookbook, 9.5/9.6 Edition - Third Edition

Overview of this book

PostgreSQL is a powerful opensource database management system; now recognized as the expert's choice for a wide range of applications, it has an enviable reputation for performance and stability. PostgreSQL provides an integrated feature set comprising relational database features, object-relational, text search, Geographical Info Systems, analytical tools for big data and JSON/XML document management. Starting with short and simple recipes, you will soon dive into core features, such as configuration, server control, tables, and data. You will tackle a variety of problems a database administrator usually encounters, from creating tables to managing views, from improving performance to securing your database, and from using monitoring tools to using storage engines. Recipes based on important topics such as high availability, concurrency, replication, backup and recovery, as well as diagnostics and troubleshooting are also given special importance. By the end of this book, you will have all the knowledge you need to run, manage, and maintain PostgreSQL efficiently.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)

The PostgreSQL superuser

In this recipe, you will learn how to turn a user into an all-powerful superuser and back to an ordinary user.

A PostgreSQL superuser is a user that can do anything in the database, regardless of what privileges it has been granted.

How to do it...

A user becomes a superuser when it is created with the SUPERUSER attribute set:

CREATE USER username SUPERUSER;

A user can be deprived of its superuser status by removing the SUPERUSER attribute, using this command:

ALTER USER username NOSUPERUSER;

A user can be restored to superuser status later, using the following command:

ALTER USER username SUPERUSER;

When neither SUPERUSER nor NOSUPERUSER is given in the CREATE USER command, then the default is to...