ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES(7) PostgreSQL 17.4 Documentation
NAME
ALTER_DEFAULT_PRIVILEGES - define default access privileges
SYNOPSIS
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES
[ FOR { ROLE | USER } target_role [, ...] ]
[ IN SCHEMA schema_name [, ...] ]
abbreviated_grant_or_revoke
where abbreviated_grant_or_revoke is one of:
GRANT { { SELECT | INSERT | UPDATE | DELETE | TRUNCATE | REFERENCES | TRIGGER | MAINTAIN }
[, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON TABLES
TO { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
GRANT { { USAGE | SELECT | UPDATE }
[, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON SEQUENCES
TO { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
GRANT { EXECUTE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON { FUNCTIONS | ROUTINES }
TO { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
GRANT { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON TYPES
TO { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
GRANT { { USAGE | CREATE }
[, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON SCHEMAS
TO { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...] [ WITH GRANT OPTION ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ { SELECT | INSERT | UPDATE | DELETE | TRUNCATE | REFERENCES | TRIGGER | MAINTAIN }
[, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON TABLES
FROM { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ { USAGE | SELECT | UPDATE }
[, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON SEQUENCES
FROM { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ EXECUTE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON { FUNCTIONS | ROUTINES }
FROM { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON TYPES
FROM { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ { USAGE | CREATE }
[, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON SCHEMAS
FROM { [ GROUP ] role_name | PUBLIC } [, ...]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
DESCRIPTION
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES allows you to set the privileges that will be
applied to objects created in the future. (It does not affect
privileges assigned to already-existing objects.) Privileges can be set
globally (i.e., for all objects created in the current database), or
just for objects created in specified schemas.
While you can change your own default privileges and the defaults of
roles that you are a member of, at object creation time, new object
permissions are only affected by the default privileges of the current
role, and are not inherited from any roles in which the current role is
a member.
As explained in Section 5.8, the default privileges for any object type
normally grant all grantable permissions to the object owner, and may
grant some privileges to PUBLIC as well. However, this behavior can be
changed by altering the global default privileges with ALTER DEFAULT
PRIVILEGES.
Currently, only the privileges for schemas, tables (including views and
foreign tables), sequences, functions, and types (including domains)
can be altered. For this command, functions include aggregates and
procedures. The words FUNCTIONS and ROUTINES are equivalent in this
command. (ROUTINES is preferred going forward as the standard term for
functions and procedures taken together. In earlier PostgreSQL
releases, only the word FUNCTIONS was allowed. It is not possible to
set default privileges for functions and procedures separately.)
Default privileges that are specified per-schema are added to whatever
the global default privileges are for the particular object type. This
means you cannot revoke privileges per-schema if they are granted
globally (either by default, or according to a previous ALTER DEFAULT
PRIVILEGES command that did not specify a schema). Per-schema REVOKE is
only useful to reverse the effects of a previous per-schema GRANT.
Parameters
target_role
Change default privileges for objects created by the target_role,
or the current role if unspecified.
schema_name
The name of an existing schema. If specified, the default
privileges are altered for objects later created in that schema. If
IN SCHEMA is omitted, the global default privileges are altered.
IN SCHEMA is not allowed when setting privileges for schemas, since
schemas can't be nested.
role_name
The name of an existing role to grant or revoke privileges for.
This parameter, and all the other parameters in
abbreviated_grant_or_revoke, act as described under GRANT(7) or
REVOKE(7), except that one is setting permissions for a whole class
of objects rather than specific named objects.
NOTES
Use psql(1)'s \ddp command to obtain information about existing
assignments of default privileges. The meaning of the privilege display
is the same as explained for \dp in Section 5.8.
If you wish to drop a role for which the default privileges have been
altered, it is necessary to reverse the changes in its default
privileges or use DROP OWNED BY to get rid of the default privileges
entry for the role.
EXAMPLES
Grant SELECT privilege to everyone for all tables (and views) you
subsequently create in schema myschema, and allow role webuser to
INSERT into them too:
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA myschema GRANT SELECT ON TABLES TO PUBLIC;
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA myschema GRANT INSERT ON TABLES TO webuser;
Undo the above, so that subsequently-created tables won't have any more
permissions than normal:
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA myschema REVOKE SELECT ON TABLES FROM PUBLIC;
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA myschema REVOKE INSERT ON TABLES FROM webuser;
Remove the public EXECUTE permission that is normally granted on
functions, for all functions subsequently created by role admin:
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES FOR ROLE admin REVOKE EXECUTE ON FUNCTIONS FROM PUBLIC;
Note however that you cannot accomplish that effect with a command
limited to a single schema. This command has no effect, unless it is
undoing a matching GRANT:
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA public REVOKE EXECUTE ON FUNCTIONS FROM PUBLIC;
That's because per-schema default privileges can only add privileges to
the global setting, not remove privileges granted by it.
COMPATIBILITY
There is no ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES statement in the SQL standard.
SEE ALSO
GRANT(7), REVOKE(7)
PostgreSQL 17.4 2025 ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES(7)
postgresql 17.4 - Generated Sat Mar 22 12:27:33 CDT 2025