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SQL COMMANDS / ROLES & PRIVILEGES

ALTER USER

Read PG 18 manual ↗

change a database role

Syntax

ALTER USER role_specification [ WITH ] option [ ... ]

where option can be:

SUPERUSER | NOSUPERUSER
| CREATEDB | NOCREATEDB
| CREATEROLE | NOCREATEROLE
| INHERIT | NOINHERIT
| LOGIN | NOLOGIN
| REPLICATION | NOREPLICATION
| BYPASSRLS | NOBYPASSRLS
| CONNECTION LIMIT connlimit
| [ ENCRYPTED ] PASSWORD 'password' | PASSWORD NULL
| VALID UNTIL 'timestamp'

ALTER USER name RENAME TO new_name

ALTER USER { role_specification | ALL } [ IN DATABASE database_name ] SET configuration_parameter { TO | = } { value | DEFAULT }
ALTER USER { role_specification | ALL } [ IN DATABASE database_name ] SET configuration_parameter FROM CURRENT
ALTER USER { role_specification | ALL } [ IN DATABASE database_name ] RESET configuration_parameter
ALTER USER { role_specification | ALL } [ IN DATABASE database_name ] RESET ALL

where role_specification can be:
role_name
| CURRENT_ROLE
| CURRENT_USER
| SESSION_USER
Syntax diagrams

Read left to right. Branches are choices, bypasses are optional, loops repeat. Select an underlined parameter to open its rule.

ALTER USER role_specification WITH option
option
SUPERUSER NOSUPERUSER CREATEDB NOCREATEDB CREATEROLE NOCREATEROLE INHERIT NOINHERIT LOGIN NOLOGIN REPLICATION NOREPLICATION BYPASSRLS NOBYPASSRLS CONNECTION LIMIT connlimit ENCRYPTED PASSWORD ' password ' PASSWORD NULL VALID UNTIL ' timestamp '
ALTER USER · Syntax 2
ALTER USER name RENAME TO new_name
ALTER USER · Syntax 3
ALTER USER role_specification ALL IN DATABASE database_name SET configuration_parameter TO = value DEFAULT
ALTER USER · Syntax 4
ALTER USER role_specification ALL IN DATABASE database_name SET configuration_parameter FROM CURRENT
ALTER USER · Syntax 5
ALTER USER role_specification ALL IN DATABASE database_name RESET configuration_parameter
ALTER USER · Syntax 6
ALTER USER role_specification ALL IN DATABASE database_name RESET ALL
role_specification
role_name CURRENT_ROLE CURRENT_USER SESSION_USER

Description

ALTER USER is now an alias for ALTER ROLE.

Compatibility

The ALTER USER statement is a PostgreSQL extension. The SQL standard leaves the definition of users to the implementation.

See Also

ALTER ROLE
Version history 2
  1. PG 13 → 14changed
  2. PG 10 → 11changed

Related entries

ALTER ROLE →

Definition snapshot: 2026-09-14T13:14:25.700916+00:00@99e6866c · English manual source