ALTER TABLE with ADD COLUMN and ADD PRIMARY KEY USING INDEX throws spurious "column contains null values"

[Zhang, Jie]

Hi all,

When I do the following:
postgres=# create table t1 (a int);
postgres=# insert into t1 values(1);
postgres=# create unique index uniq_idx on t1(a);
postgres=# alter table t1 add column b float8 not null default random(), add 
primary key using index uniq_idx;
ERROR: column "b" contains null values

PostgreSQL throws error "column b contains null values".

#########################################
alter table t1 add column b float8 not null default 0, add primary key using 
index uniq_idx;

alter table success.
#########################################

The reasons for the error are as follows.

ATController provides top level control over the phases.
Phase 1: preliminary examination of commands, create work queue 
Phase 2: update system catalogs 
Phase 3: scan/rewrite tables as needed 

In Phase 2, when dealing with "add column b float8 not null default random()", 
the table is marked rewrite.
When dealing with "add primary key using index uniq_idx", 
ATExecAddIndexConstraint calls index_check_primary_key.

The calling order is as follows.
index_check_primary_key()
    ↓
AlterTableInternal()
    ↓
ATController()
    ↓
ATRewriteTables()
    ↓
ATRewriteTable()

ATRewriteTable check all not-null constraints. Column a and column b need to 
check NOT NULL.
Unfortunately, at this time, Phase 3 hasn't been done yet.
The table is not rewrited, just marked rewrite. So, throws error "column b 
contains null values".

In Phase 2, if table is marked rewrite, we can do not check whether columns are 
NOT NULL.
Because phase 3 will do it.

Here's a patch to fix this bug.

Best Regards!

alter_table.patch
Description: alter_table.patch