List grants and privileges for a materialized view in PostgreSQL

Question

I need to determine what privileges are currently granted for some materialized views in my database.

The query to do this for a table or standard view is pretty straight forward:

SELECT grantee, string_agg(privilege_type, ', ') AS privileges
FROM information_schema.table_privileges
WHERE table_schema = 'some_schema' AND table_name = 'some_table'
GROUP by grantee;

That said, there doesn't seem to be an analogous table for materialized views. Where does PostgreSQL store this information?

Answer 1

In Postgres system catalogs are the basic set of complete information about the installation and databases. System catalogs are the most reliable source of information. Information schema as an auxiliary feature is based on system catalogs and is provided for compatibility with other RDBMs:

The information schema is defined in the SQL standard and can therefore be expected to be portable and remain stable — unlike the system catalogs, which are specific to PostgreSQL and are modeled after implementation concerns. The information schema views do not, however, contain information about PostgreSQL-specific features; to inquire about those you need to query the system catalogs or other PostgreSQL-specific views.

Materialized views are not SQL-standard objects hence the information schema does not contain information about them.

The system catalog pg_class contains all informations on privileges in the column relacl.

If the column is null then the owner has all privileges.

An empty string as a user name in acl string means public.

create materialized view test_view as select 1;
grant select on test_view to public;
grant delete on test_view to a_user;

select 
    coalesce(nullif(s[1], ''), 'public') as grantee, 
    s[2] as privileges
from 
    pg_class c
    join pg_namespace n on n.oid = relnamespace
    join pg_roles r on r.oid = relowner,
    unnest(coalesce(relacl::text[], format('{%s=arwdDxt/%s}', rolname, rolname)::text[])) acl, 
    regexp_split_to_array(acl, '=|/') s
where nspname = 'public' and relname = 'test_view';

 grantee  | privileges 
----------+------------
 postgres | arwdDxt
 public   | r
 a_user   | d
(3 rows)

You need a function to show privileges in readable format:

create or replace function priviliges_from_acl(text)
returns text language sql as $$
    select string_agg(privilege, ', ')
    from (
        select 
            case ch
                when 'r' then 'SELECT'
                when 'w' then 'UPDATE'
                when 'a' then 'INSERT'
                when 'd' then 'DELETE'
                when 'D' then 'TRUNCATE'
                when 'x' then 'REFERENCES'
                when 't' then 'TRIGGER'
            end privilege
        from
            regexp_split_to_table($1, '') ch
    ) s 
$$;

Use:

select 
    coalesce(nullif(s[1], ''), 'public') as grantee, 
    priviliges_from_acl(s[2]) as privileges
from 
    pg_class c
    join pg_namespace n on n.oid = relnamespace
    join pg_roles r on r.oid = relowner,
    unnest(coalesce(relacl::text[], format('{%s=arwdDxt/%s}', rolname, rolname)::text[])) acl, 
    regexp_split_to_array(acl, '=|/') s
where nspname = 'public' and relname = 'test_view';

 grantee  |                          privileges                           
----------+---------------------------------------------------------------
 postgres | INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE, TRUNCATE, REFERENCES, TRIGGER
 public   | SELECT
 a_user   | DELETE
(3 rows)

Answer 2

Following klin's helpful answer, I've come up with a view that lists a summary of all privileges for all relations that appear in pg_class (tables, views, m. views, indexes, sequences, foreign tables, composite types) for all roles:

CREATE VIEW show_privileges AS (
    SELECT
        grantee,
        string_agg(relname, ', ' ORDER BY relname) AS rel_names,
        privileges
    FROM (
        SELECT 
            relname,
            coalesce(nullif(s[1], ''), 'public') grantee, 
            (SELECT string_agg(privilege, ', ' ORDER BY privilege ASC)
                FROM (SELECT
                    CASE ch
                        WHEN 'r' THEN 'SELECT'
                        WHEN 'w' THEN 'UPDATE'
                        WHEN 'a' THEN 'INSERT'
                        WHEN 'd' THEN 'DELETE'
                        WHEN 'D' THEN 'TRUNCATE'
                        WHEN 'x' THEN 'REFERENCES'
                        WHEN 't' THEN 'TRIGGER'
                    END AS privilege
                    FROM regexp_split_to_table(s[2], '') ch
                ) s
            ) AS privileges
        FROM 
            pg_class
            JOIN pg_namespace ON pg_namespace.oid = relnamespace
            JOIN pg_roles ON pg_roles.oid = relowner,
            unnest(coalesce(relacl::text[], format('{%s=arwdDxt/%s}', rolname, rolname)::text[])) AS acl,
            regexp_split_to_array(acl, '=|/') AS s
        WHERE nspname = 'public'
    ) AS t
    GROUP BY grantee, privileges
    ORDER BY grantee, privileges, rel_names
);