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The GRANT statement controls each role or user’s SQL privileges for interacting with specific databases, schemas, tables, or user-defined types. For privileges required by specific statements, see the documentation for the respective SQL statement. You can use GRANT to directly grant privileges to a role or user, or you can grant membership to an existing role, which grants that role’s privileges to the grantee. Users granted a privilege with WITH GRANT OPTION can in turn grant that privilege to others. The owner of an object implicitly has the GRANT OPTION for all privileges, and the GRANT OPTION is inherited through role memberships. For new databases, users with the following roles are automatically granted the ALL privilege:
  • Every user who is part of the admin role (including the root user)
  • Every user who is part of the owner role for the new database

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Syntax

GRANT {ALL [PRIVILEGES] | privilege_list} 
  ON {DATABASE | SCHEMA | TABLE | TYPE | FUNCTION | EXTERNAL CONNECTION} target [, ...]
  TO role_spec [, ...]
  [WITH GRANT OPTION]

GRANT {role_name [, ...]} TO {role_spec [, ...]} [WITH ADMIN OPTION]

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Parameters

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ALL | ALL PRIVILEGES
keyword
Grant all privileges.
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privilege_list
list
A comma-separated list of privileges to grant. For guidelines, see Managing privileges.Supported privileges include:
  • SELECT - Read data from a table
  • INSERT - Insert data into a table
  • UPDATE - Update data in a table
  • DELETE - Delete data from a table
  • CREATE - Create objects in a database or schema
  • DROP - Drop objects from a database
  • GRANT - Grant privileges to other users
  • USAGE - Use a schema or type
  • EXECUTE - Execute a function
  • ZONECONFIG - Modify replication zones
  • CONNECT - Connect to a database
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target
identifier
A comma-separated list of database, table, sequence, or function names. The list should be preceded by the object type (e.g., DATABASE mydatabase).
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ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA
clause
Grant privileges on all sequences in a schema or list of schemas.
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ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA
clause
Grant privileges on all tables and sequences in a schema or list of schemas.
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ALL FUNCTIONS IN SCHEMA
clause
Grant privileges on all user-defined functions in a schema or list of schemas.
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role_spec
identifier
A comma-separated list of roles.
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WITH ADMIN OPTION
keyword
Designate the user as a role admin. Role admins can grant or revoke membership for the specified role.
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WITH GRANT OPTION
keyword
Allow the user to grant the specified privilege to others.

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Required privileges

  • To grant privileges, the user granting the privileges must also have the privilege being granted on the target database or tables. For example, a user granting the SELECT privilege on a table to another user must have the SELECT privileges on that table and WITH GRANT OPTION on SELECT.
  • To grant roles, the user granting role membership must be a role admin (i.e., members with the WITH ADMIN OPTION) or a member of the admin role. To grant membership to the admin role, the user must have WITH ADMIN OPTION on the admin role.

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Details

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Granting privileges

When a role or user is granted privileges for a table, the privileges are limited to the table. The user does not automatically get privileges to new or existing tables in the database.

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Granting roles

  • Users and roles can be members of roles
  • The root user is automatically created as an admin role and assigned the ALL privilege for new databases
  • All privileges of a role are inherited by all its members
  • Membership loops are not allowed (direct or indirect)

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Examples

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Grant privileges on databases

CREATE USER IF NOT EXISTS max WITH PASSWORD 'roach';

GRANT ALL ON DATABASE movr TO max WITH GRANT OPTION;

SHOW GRANTS ON DATABASE movr;

  database_name | grantee | privilege_type | is_grantable
----------------+---------+----------------+---------------
  movr          | admin   | ALL            |      t
  movr          | max     | ALL            |      t
  movr          | public  | CONNECT        |      f
  movr          | root    | ALL            |      t

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Grant privileges on specific tables

GRANT DELETE ON TABLE rides TO max;

SHOW GRANTS ON TABLE rides;

  database_name | schema_name | table_name | grantee | privilege_type | is_grantable
----------------+-------------+------------+---------+----------------+---------------
  movr          | public      | rides      | admin   | ALL            |      t
  movr          | public      | rides      | max     | DELETE         |      f
  movr          | public      | rides      | root    | ALL            |      t

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Grant privileges on all tables in a database or schema

To grant all the privileges on existing tables to a user: 
GRANT ALL ON * TO max;

SHOW GRANTS ON TABLE movr.public.*;
To ensure that anytime a new table is created, all the privileges on that table are granted to a user, use ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES: 
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES FOR ALL ROLES GRANT ALL ON TABLES TO max;
To check that this is working as expected, create a table: 
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS usertable(x INT);
Then, check that the privileges are granted: 
SHOW GRANTS ON TABLE usertable;

  database_name | schema_name | table_name | grantee | privilege_type | is_grantable
----------------+-------------+------------+---------+----------------+---------------
  movr          | public      | usertable  | admin   | ALL            |      t
  movr          | public      | usertable  | max     | ALL            |      f
  movr          | public      | usertable  | root    | ALL            |      t

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Grant system-level privileges

System-level privileges live above the database level and apply to the entire cluster. root and admin users have system-level privileges by default, and are capable of granting it to other users and roles using the GRANT statement. 
GRANT SYSTEM MODIFYCLUSTERSETTING TO max;

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Make a table readable to every user

GRANT SELECT ON TABLE vehicles TO public;

SHOW GRANTS ON TABLE vehicles;

  database_name | schema_name | table_name | grantee | privilege_type | is_grantable
----------------+-------------+------------+---------+----------------+---------------
  movr          | public      | vehicles   | admin   | ALL            |      t
  movr          | public      | vehicles   | max     | ALL            |      f
  movr          | public      | vehicles   | public  | SELECT         |      f
  movr          | public      | vehicles   | root    | ALL            |      t

​
Grant privileges on schemas

CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS cockroach_labs;

GRANT ALL ON SCHEMA cockroach_labs TO max WITH GRANT OPTION;

SHOW GRANTS ON SCHEMA cockroach_labs;

  database_name |  schema_name   | grantee | privilege_type | is_grantable
----------------+----------------+---------+----------------+---------------
  movr          | cockroach_labs | admin   | ALL            |      t
  movr          | cockroach_labs | max     | ALL            |      t
  movr          | cockroach_labs | root    | ALL            |      t

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Grant privileges on user-defined types

CREATE TYPE IF NOT EXISTS status AS ENUM ('open', 'closed', 'inactive');

GRANT ALL ON TYPE status TO max WITH GRANT OPTION;

SHOW GRANTS ON TYPE status;

  database_name | schema_name | type_name | grantee | privilege_type | is_grantable
----------------+-------------+-----------+---------+----------------+---------------
  movr          | public      | status    | admin   | ALL            |      t
  movr          | public      | status    | max     | ALL            |      t
  movr          | public      | status    | public  | USAGE          |      f
  movr          | public      | status    | root    | ALL            |      t

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Grant the privilege to manage replication zones

GRANT ZONECONFIG ON TABLE rides TO max;
The user max can then use the CONFIGURE ZONE statement to add, modify, reset, or remove replication zones for the table rides.

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Grant role membership

CREATE ROLE IF NOT EXISTS developer WITH CREATEDB;

CREATE USER IF NOT EXISTS abbey WITH PASSWORD 'lincoln';

GRANT developer TO abbey;

SHOW GRANTS ON ROLE developer;

  role_name | member | is_admin
------------+--------+-----------
  developer | abbey  |  false

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Grant the admin option

GRANT developer TO abbey WITH ADMIN OPTION;

SHOW GRANTS ON ROLE developer;

  role_name | member | is_admin
------------+--------+-----------
  developer | abbey  |   true

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See also

  • REVOKE
  • SHOW GRANTS
  • CREATE ROLE
  • ALTER ROLE
  • DROP ROLE
  • Privileges

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