Allow ALTER TYPE to change some properties of a base type.

Specifically, this patch allows ALTER TYPE to:
* Change the default TOAST strategy for a toastable base type;
* Promote a non-toastable type to toastable;
* Add/remove binary I/O functions for a type;
* Add/remove typmod I/O functions for a type;
* Add/remove a custom ANALYZE statistics functions for a type.

The first of these can be done by the type's owner; all the others
require superuser privilege since misuse could cause problems.

The main motivation for this patch is to allow extensions to
upgrade the feature sets of their data types, so the set of
alterable properties is biased towards that use-case.  However
it's also true that changing some other properties would be
a lot harder, as they get baked into physical storage and/or
stored expressions that depend on the type.

Along the way, refactor GenerateTypeDependencies() to make it easier
to call, refactor DefineType's volatility checks so they can be shared
by AlterType, and teach typcache.c that it might have to reload data
from the type's pg_type row, a scenario it never handled before.
Also rearrange alter_type.sgml a bit for clarity (put the
composite-type operations together).

Tomas Vondra and Tom Lane

Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/20200228004440.b23ein4qvmxnlpht@development

2 files changed, 135 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/src/test/regress/expected/create_type.out b/src/test/regress/expected/create_type.out
index eb55e255d6..86a8b65450 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/expected/create_type.out
+++ b/src/test/regress/expected/create_type.out
@@ -224,3 +224,81 @@ select format_type('bpchar'::regtype, -1);
  bpchar
 (1 row)
 
+--
+-- Test CREATE/ALTER TYPE using a type that's compatible with varchar,
+-- so we can re-use those support functions
+--
+CREATE TYPE myvarchar;
+CREATE FUNCTION myvarcharin(cstring, oid, integer) RETURNS myvarchar
+LANGUAGE internal IMMUTABLE PARALLEL SAFE STRICT AS 'varcharin';
+NOTICE:  return type myvarchar is only a shell
+CREATE FUNCTION myvarcharout(myvarchar) RETURNS cstring
+LANGUAGE internal IMMUTABLE PARALLEL SAFE STRICT AS 'varcharout';
+NOTICE:  argument type myvarchar is only a shell
+CREATE FUNCTION myvarcharsend(myvarchar) RETURNS bytea
+LANGUAGE internal STABLE PARALLEL SAFE STRICT AS 'varcharsend';
+NOTICE:  argument type myvarchar is only a shell
+CREATE FUNCTION myvarcharrecv(internal, oid, integer) RETURNS myvarchar
+LANGUAGE internal STABLE PARALLEL SAFE STRICT AS 'varcharrecv';
+NOTICE:  return type myvarchar is only a shell
+-- fail, it's still a shell:
+ALTER TYPE myvarchar SET (storage = extended);
+ERROR:  type "myvarchar" is only a shell
+CREATE TYPE myvarchar (
+    input = myvarcharin,
+    output = myvarcharout,
+    alignment = integer,
+    storage = main
+);
+-- want to check updating of a domain over the target type, too
+CREATE DOMAIN myvarchardom AS myvarchar;
+ALTER TYPE myvarchar SET (storage = plain);  -- not allowed
+ERROR:  cannot change type's storage to PLAIN
+ALTER TYPE myvarchar SET (storage = extended);
+ALTER TYPE myvarchar SET (
+    send = myvarcharsend,
+    receive = myvarcharrecv,
+    typmod_in = varchartypmodin,
+    typmod_out = varchartypmodout,
+    analyze = array_typanalyze  -- bogus, but it doesn't matter
+);
+SELECT typinput, typoutput, typreceive, typsend, typmodin, typmodout,
+       typanalyze, typstorage
+FROM pg_type WHERE typname = 'myvarchar';
+  typinput   |  typoutput   |  typreceive   |    typsend    |    typmodin     |    typmodout     |    typanalyze    | typstorage 
+-------------+--------------+---------------+---------------+-----------------+------------------+------------------+------------
+ myvarcharin | myvarcharout | myvarcharrecv | myvarcharsend | varchartypmodin | varchartypmodout | array_typanalyze | x
+(1 row)
+
+SELECT typinput, typoutput, typreceive, typsend, typmodin, typmodout,
+       typanalyze, typstorage
+FROM pg_type WHERE typname = 'myvarchardom';
+ typinput  |  typoutput   | typreceive  |    typsend    | typmodin | typmodout |    typanalyze    | typstorage 
+-----------+--------------+-------------+---------------+----------+-----------+------------------+------------
+ domain_in | myvarcharout | domain_recv | myvarcharsend | -        | -         | array_typanalyze | x
+(1 row)
+
+-- ensure dependencies are straight
+DROP FUNCTION myvarcharsend(myvarchar);  -- fail
+ERROR:  cannot drop function myvarcharsend(myvarchar) because other objects depend on it
+DETAIL:  type myvarchar depends on function myvarcharsend(myvarchar)
+function myvarcharin(cstring,oid,integer) depends on type myvarchar
+function myvarcharout(myvarchar) depends on type myvarchar
+function myvarcharrecv(internal,oid,integer) depends on type myvarchar
+type myvarchardom depends on function myvarcharsend(myvarchar)
+HINT:  Use DROP ... CASCADE to drop the dependent objects too.
+DROP TYPE myvarchar;  -- fail
+ERROR:  cannot drop type myvarchar because other objects depend on it
+DETAIL:  function myvarcharin(cstring,oid,integer) depends on type myvarchar
+function myvarcharout(myvarchar) depends on type myvarchar
+function myvarcharsend(myvarchar) depends on type myvarchar
+function myvarcharrecv(internal,oid,integer) depends on type myvarchar
+type myvarchardom depends on type myvarchar
+HINT:  Use DROP ... CASCADE to drop the dependent objects too.
+DROP TYPE myvarchar CASCADE;
+NOTICE:  drop cascades to 5 other objects
+DETAIL:  drop cascades to function myvarcharin(cstring,oid,integer)
+drop cascades to function myvarcharout(myvarchar)
+drop cascades to function myvarcharsend(myvarchar)
+drop cascades to function myvarcharrecv(internal,oid,integer)
+drop cascades to type myvarchardom
diff --git a/src/test/regress/sql/create_type.sql b/src/test/regress/sql/create_type.sql
index 68b04fd4fe..5b176bb2ae 100644
--- a/src/test/regress/sql/create_type.sql
+++ b/src/test/regress/sql/create_type.sql
@@ -166,3 +166,60 @@ select format_type('varchar'::regtype, 42);
 select format_type('bpchar'::regtype, null);
 -- this behavior difference is intentional
 select format_type('bpchar'::regtype, -1);
+
+--
+-- Test CREATE/ALTER TYPE using a type that's compatible with varchar,
+-- so we can re-use those support functions
+--
+CREATE TYPE myvarchar;
+
+CREATE FUNCTION myvarcharin(cstring, oid, integer) RETURNS myvarchar
+LANGUAGE internal IMMUTABLE PARALLEL SAFE STRICT AS 'varcharin';
+
+CREATE FUNCTION myvarcharout(myvarchar) RETURNS cstring
+LANGUAGE internal IMMUTABLE PARALLEL SAFE STRICT AS 'varcharout';
+
+CREATE FUNCTION myvarcharsend(myvarchar) RETURNS bytea
+LANGUAGE internal STABLE PARALLEL SAFE STRICT AS 'varcharsend';
+
+CREATE FUNCTION myvarcharrecv(internal, oid, integer) RETURNS myvarchar
+LANGUAGE internal STABLE PARALLEL SAFE STRICT AS 'varcharrecv';
+
+-- fail, it's still a shell:
+ALTER TYPE myvarchar SET (storage = extended);
+
+CREATE TYPE myvarchar (
+    input = myvarcharin,
+    output = myvarcharout,
+    alignment = integer,
+    storage = main
+);
+
+-- want to check updating of a domain over the target type, too
+CREATE DOMAIN myvarchardom AS myvarchar;
+
+ALTER TYPE myvarchar SET (storage = plain);  -- not allowed
+
+ALTER TYPE myvarchar SET (storage = extended);
+
+ALTER TYPE myvarchar SET (
+    send = myvarcharsend,
+    receive = myvarcharrecv,
+    typmod_in = varchartypmodin,
+    typmod_out = varchartypmodout,
+    analyze = array_typanalyze  -- bogus, but it doesn't matter
+);
+
+SELECT typinput, typoutput, typreceive, typsend, typmodin, typmodout,
+       typanalyze, typstorage
+FROM pg_type WHERE typname = 'myvarchar';
+
+SELECT typinput, typoutput, typreceive, typsend, typmodin, typmodout,
+       typanalyze, typstorage
+FROM pg_type WHERE typname = 'myvarchardom';
+
+-- ensure dependencies are straight
+DROP FUNCTION myvarcharsend(myvarchar);  -- fail
+DROP TYPE myvarchar;  -- fail
+
+DROP TYPE myvarchar CASCADE;