pg_catalog

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Warning:

As of November 18, 2022, CockroachDB v21.1 is no longer supported. For more details, refer to the Release Support Policy.

For PostgreSQL compatibility, CockroachDB includes a system catalog schema called pg_catalog. The tables in the pg_catalog schema roughly correspond to the system catalogs in PostgreSQL. pg_catalog tables are read-only.

Data exposed by `pg_catalog`

The tables in CockroachDB's pg_catalog schema correspond to a subset of the virtual tables and views that make up the PostgreSQL system catalogs. Not all PostgreSQL system catalogs have a corresponding table in pg_catalog, and some of the pg_catalog tables are empty. See the following table for a detailed comparison between PostgreSQL 13 system catalogs and pg_catalog tables.

PostgreSQL 13 system catalog	`pg_catalog` table
`pg_aggregate`	`pg_aggregate`
`pg_am`	`pg_am`
`pg_amop`	`pg_amop` (empty)
`pg_amproc`	`pg_amproc` (empty)
`pg_attrdef`	`pg_attrdef`
`pg_attribute`	`pg_attribute`
`pg_auth_members`	`pg_auth_members`
`pg_authid`	`pg_authid`
`pg_available_extension_versions`	`pg_available_extension_versions` (empty)
`pg_available_extensions`	`pg_available_extensions`
`pg_cast`	`pg_cast`
`pg_class`	`pg_class`
`pg_collation`	`pg_collation`
`pg_config`	`pg_config` (empty)
`pg_constraint`	`pg_constraint`
`pg_conversion`	`pg_conversion`
`pg_cursors`	`pg_cursors` (empty)
`pg_database`	`pg_database`
`pg_db_role_setting`	`pg_db_role_setting` (empty)
`pg_default_acl`	`pg_default_acl`
`pg_depend`	`pg_depend`
`pg_description`	`pg_description`
`pg_enum`	`pg_enum`
`pg_event_trigger`	`pg_event_trigger`
`pg_extension`	`pg_extension`
`pg_file_settings`	`pg_file_settings` (empty)
`pg_foreign_data_wrapper`	`pg_foreign_data_wrapper`
`pg_foreign_server`	`pg_foreign_server`
`pg_foreign_table`	`pg_foreign_table`
`pg_group`	`pg_group` (empty)
`pg_hba_file_rules`	`pg_hba_file_rules` (empty)
`pg_index`	`pg_index`
`pg_indexes`	`pg_indexes`
`pg_inherits`	`pg_inherits`
`pg_init_privs`	None
`pg_language`	`pg_language` (empty)
`pg_largeobject`	`pg_largeobject` (empty)
`pg_largeobject_metadata`	None
`pg_locks`	`pg_locks`
`pg_matviews`	`pg_matviews`
`pg_namespace`	`pg_namespace`
`pg_opclass`	`pg_opclass` (empty)
`pg_operator`	`pg_operator`
`pg_opfamily`	`pg_opfamily` (empty)
`pg_partitioned_table`	None
`pg_policies`	`pg_policies` (empty)
`pg_policy`	None
`pg_prepared_statements`	`pg_prepared_statements` (empty)
`pg_prepared_xacts`	`pg_prepared_xacts` (empty)
`pg_proc`	`pg_proc`
`pg_publication`	`pg_publication` (empty)
`pg_publication_rel`	`pg_publication_rel` (empty)
`pg_publication_tables`	`pg_publication_tables` (empty)
`pg_range`	`pg_range`
`pg_replication_origin`	`pg_replication_origin` (empty)
`pg_replication_origin_status`	None
`pg_replication_slots`	None
`pg_rewrite`	`pg_rewrite`
`pg_roles`	`pg_roles`
`pg_rules`	`pg_rules` (empty)
`pg_seclabel`	`pg_seclabel`
`pg_seclabels`	`pg_seclabels`
`pg_sequence`	`pg_sequence`
`pg_sequences`	None
`pg_settings`	`pg_settings`
`pg_shadow`	`pg_shadow` (empty)
`pg_shdepend`	`pg_shdepend` (empty)
`pg_shdescription`	`pg_shdescription`
`pg_shmem_allocations`	`pg_shmem_allocations` (empty)
`pg_shseclabel`	`pg_shseclabel`
`pg_stat_activity`	`pg_stat_activity`
`pg_statistic`	None
`pg_statistic_ext`	`pg_statistic_ext` (empty)
`pg_statistic_ext_data`	None
`pg_stats`	None
`pg_stats_ext`	None
`pg_subscription`	`pg_subscription` (empty)
`pg_subscription_rel`	None
`pg_tables`	`pg_tables`
`pg_tablespace`	`pg_tablespace`
`pg_timezone_abbrevs`	`pg_timezone_abbrevs` (empty)
`pg_timezone_names`	`pg_timezone_names` (empty)
`pg_transform`	`pg_transform` (empty)
`pg_trigger`	`pg_trigger`
`pg_ts_config`	`pg_ts_config` (empty)
`pg_ts_config_map`	`pg_ts_config_map` (empty)
`pg_ts_dict`	`pg_ts_dict` (empty)
`pg_ts_parser`	`pg_ts_parser` (empty)
`pg_ts_template`	`pg_ts_template` (empty)
`pg_type`	`pg_type`
`pg_user`	`pg_user`
`pg_user_mapping`	`pg_user_mapping`
`pg_user_mappings`	`pg_user_mappings` (empty)
`pg_views`	`pg_views`

To list the tables in pg_catalog for the current database, use the following SHOW TABLES statement:

> SHOW TABLES FROM pg_catalog;

  schema_name |       table_name        | type  | owner | estimated_row_count
--------------+-------------------------+-------+-------+----------------------
  pg_catalog  | pg_aggregate            | table | NULL  |                NULL
  pg_catalog  | pg_am                   | table | NULL  |                NULL
  ...

Note:

To prohibit queries against empty tables, set the stub_catalog_tables session variable to off.

Query `pg_catalog` tables

You can run SELECT queries on the tables in pg_catalog.

Tip:

To ensure that you can view all of the tables in pg_catalog, query the tables as a user with admin privileges.

Note:

Unless specified otherwise, queries to pg_catalog assume the current database.

For example, to return the pg_catalog table with additional information about indexes in movr database, you can query the pg_catalog.pg_indexes table:

> SELECT * FROM movr.pg_catalog.pg_indexes;

   crdb_oid  | schemaname |         tablename          |                   indexname                   | tablespace |                                                            indexdef
-------------+------------+----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  2055313241 | public     | users                      | primary                                       | NULL       | CREATE UNIQUE INDEX "primary" ON movr.public.users USING btree (city ASC, id ASC)
  1795576970 | public     | vehicles                   | primary                                       | NULL       | CREATE UNIQUE INDEX "primary" ON movr.public.vehicles USING btree (city ASC, id ASC)
  1795576969 | public     | vehicles                   | vehicles_auto_index_fk_city_ref_users         | NULL       | CREATE INDEX vehicles_auto_index_fk_city_ref_users ON movr.public.vehicles USING btree (city ASC, owner_id ASC)
   450499963 | public     | rides                      | primary                                       | NULL       | CREATE UNIQUE INDEX "primary" ON movr.public.rides USING btree (city ASC, id ASC)
   450499960 | public     | rides                      | rides_auto_index_fk_city_ref_users            | NULL       | CREATE INDEX rides_auto_index_fk_city_ref_users ON movr.public.rides USING btree (city ASC, rider_id ASC)
   450499961 | public     | rides                      | rides_auto_index_fk_vehicle_city_ref_vehicles | NULL       | CREATE INDEX rides_auto_index_fk_vehicle_city_ref_vehicles ON movr.public.rides USING btree (vehicle_city ASC, vehicle_id ASC)
  2315049508 | public     | vehicle_location_histories | primary                                       | NULL       | CREATE UNIQUE INDEX "primary" ON movr.public.vehicle_location_histories USING btree (city ASC, ride_id ASC, "timestamp" ASC)
   969972501 | public     | promo_codes                | primary                                       | NULL       | CREATE UNIQUE INDEX "primary" ON movr.public.promo_codes USING btree (code ASC)
   710236230 | public     | user_promo_codes           | primary                                       | NULL       | CREATE UNIQUE INDEX "primary" ON movr.public.user_promo_codes USING btree (city ASC, user_id ASC, code ASC)
(9 rows)

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pg_catalog

Data exposed by `pg_catalog`

Query `pg_catalog` tables

See also

Cockroach University

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Cockroach University

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pg_catalog

Data exposed by pg_catalog

Query pg_catalog tables

See also

Cockroach
University

Cockroach
University

Data exposed by `pg_catalog`

Query `pg_catalog` tables