This is in postgres 8.1: PostgreSQL 8.1.1 on x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, compiled by GCC gcc (GCC) 3.4.2 20041017 (Red Hat 3.4.2-6.fc3) I've got a table in one schema (work.client_collect_rates) which has an FK constraint with a table, content.collections_l (definitions shown below). There's about 500 entries currently in my collections_l table. I need to wipe out the contents of the collections_l table nightly and refresh it from a remote master source. (Don't ask ... long & sordid history) As the sequence below shows, I dropped the FK constraint successfully, but when I run TRUNCATE collections_l it says: ERROR: cannot truncate a table referenced in a foreign key constraint DETAIL: Table "client_collect_rates" references "collections_l" via foreign key constraint "$2". HINT: Truncate table "client_collect_rates" at the same time. This truncation of the second table is *not* an option, but since the constraint "$2" is clearly gone, I am wondering what in the name of sweet apples is going on ? Is this a bug ? Have a developed premature senility ? Any clues for the clueless would be gratefully accepted! TIA, Greg Williamson DBA GlobeXplorer LLC billing=# \d work.client_collect_rates Table "work.client_collect_rates" Column | Type | Modifiers ---------------+---------+----------- contract_id | integer | not null collection_id | integer | not null rate | numeric | break_1 | numeric | rate_1 | numeric | break_2 | numeric | rate_2 | numeric | break_3 | numeric | rate_3 | numeric | break_4 | numeric | rate_4 | numeric | Indexes: "clnt_colrate_ndx" UNIQUE, btree (contract_id, collection_id) Foreign-key constraints: "$1" FOREIGN KEY (contract_id) REFERENCES client_contracts(contract_id) "$2" FOREIGN KEY (collection_id) REFERENCES content.collections_l(collect_id) billing=# \d content.collections_l Table "content.collections_l" Column | Type | Modifiers ----------------------+------------------------+-------------------- collect_id | integer | not null owner | integer | collection_name | character(50) | begin_date | date | end_date | date | pos_accuracy | integer | res_accuracy | integer | loc_code | character(30) | color | integer | default 0 category_id | integer | is_mosaic | integer | not null default 0 detail_metadata_view | character varying(255) | jdbc_url | character varying(255) | jdbc_driver | character varying(255) | Indexes: "collections_l_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, btree (collect_id) "collect_own_ndx" btree ("owner", collect_id) billing=# alter table work.client_collect_rates drop constraint "$2"; ALTER TABLE billing=# \d work.client_collect_rates Table "work.client_collect_rates" Column | Type | Modifiers ---------------+---------+----------- contract_id | integer | not null collection_id | integer | not null rate | numeric | break_1 | numeric | rate_1 | numeric | break_2 | numeric | rate_2 | numeric | break_3 | numeric | rate_3 | numeric | break_4 | numeric | rate_4 | numeric | Indexes: "clnt_colrate_ndx" UNIQUE, btree (contract_id, collection_id) Foreign-key constraints: "$1" FOREIGN KEY (contract_id) REFERENCES client_contracts(contract_id) (Note that the "$2" FK is gone...) billing=# truncate content.collections_l; ERROR: cannot truncate a table referenced in a foreign key constraint DETAIL: Table "client_collect_rates" references "collections_l" via foreign key constraint "$2". HINT: Truncate table "client_collect_rates" at the same time.