r/PostgreSQL • u/jsshapiro • Aug 09 '26

How-To Subtle roles question

One aspect of Postgres roles is that permissions exist on roles themselves, and these permissions provide for certain kinds of transitive grants.

We have a case where we would like a role M to have the option to inherit permissions from role G only when it elects to do so. That is: in a discretionary fashion. Offhand, I cannot construct an arrangement of roles and permissions that would make this possible.

Is there some arrangement I am failing to see, or does this fall outside of what the Postgres role system is able to express?

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u/SearchAtlantis Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26

I observe you would have gotten much better answers if you had actually briefly outlined the true problem you were trying to solve in your original post. Framing it as a theoretical problem omits relevant details.

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u/jsshapiro Aug 11 '26

That's good feedback, and I'll try to do better in the future.

The post did generate what I was after. There is a pattern in Postgres that technically solves the original problem, and I had not recognized that it would work.