> On 12 Feb 2025, at 22:27, Marcelo Fernandes <marcefern7@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On Thu, Feb 13, 2025 at 10:02 AM Adrian Klaver > > Also pulling in your question in the other reply: > >> Why can't you just add the exclusion constraint to the original table? > > With unique constraints, one can use a unique index to create the constraint > concurrently. > > With check constraints, one can create the constraint as invalid and then > validate it while only requiring a share update exclusive lock. > > But with exclusion constraints, neither of those techniques are available. In > that sense, there is no way to create this type of constraint in a large table > without copying the original table, adding the constraint, and performing a > table swap. > > This is done to avoid having to hold an exclusive lock for a long amount of > time, thus creating application outages. > Just a wild idea (not sure if anyone suggested it in this thread and not sure if it is doable): Create index concurrently and then fiddle with the catalog tables to define the constraint using this index? — Michal
