REVOKE — remove access privileges
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ { SELECT | INSERT | UPDATE | DELETE | TRUNCATE | REFERENCES | TRIGGER }
[, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON { [ TABLE ] table_name [, ...]
| ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA schema_name [, ...] }
FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ { SELECT | INSERT | UPDATE | REFERENCES } ( column_name [, ...] )
[, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] ( column_name [, ...] ) }
ON [ TABLE ] table_name [, ...]
FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ { USAGE | SELECT | UPDATE }
[, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON { SEQUENCE sequence_name [, ...]
| ALL SEQUENCES IN SCHEMA schema_name [, ...] }
FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ { CREATE | CONNECT | TEMPORARY | TEMP } [, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON DATABASE database_name [, ...]
FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON DOMAIN domain_name [, ...]
FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER fdw_name [, ...]
FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON FOREIGN SERVER server_name [, ...]
FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ EXECUTE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON { { FUNCTION | PROCEDURE | ROUTINE } function_name [ ( [ [ argmode ] [ arg_name ] arg_type [, ...] ] ) ] [, ...]
| ALL { FUNCTIONS | PROCEDURES | ROUTINES } IN SCHEMA schema_name [, ...] }
FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON LANGUAGE lang_name [, ...]
FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ { SELECT | UPDATE } [, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON LARGE OBJECT loid [, ...]
FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ { SET | ALTER SYSTEM } [, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON PARAMETER configuration_parameter [, ...]
FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ { CREATE | USAGE } [, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON SCHEMA schema_name [, ...]
FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ CREATE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON TABLESPACE tablespace_name [, ...]
FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
{ USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
ON TYPE type_name [, ...]
FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
REVOKE [ { ADMIN | INHERIT | SET } OPTION FOR ]
role_name [, ...] FROM role_specification [, ...]
[ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
[ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]
where role_specification can be:
[ GROUP ] role_name
| PUBLIC
| CURRENT_ROLE
| CURRENT_USER
| SESSION_USER
The REVOKE command revokes previously granted
privileges from one or more roles. The key word
PUBLIC refers to the implicitly defined group of
all roles.
See the description of the GRANT command for
the meaning of the privilege types.
Note that any particular role will have the sum
of privileges granted directly to it, privileges granted to any role it
is presently a member of, and privileges granted to
PUBLIC. Thus, for example, revoking SELECT privilege
from PUBLIC does not necessarily mean that all roles
have lost SELECT privilege on the object: those who have it granted
directly or via another role will still have it. Similarly, revoking
SELECT from a user might not prevent that user from using
SELECT if PUBLIC or another membership
role still has SELECT rights.
If GRANT OPTION FOR is specified, only the grant
option for the privilege is revoked, not the privilege itself.
Otherwise, both the privilege and the grant option are revoked.
If a user holds a privilege with grant option and has granted it to
other users then the privileges held by those other users are
called dependent privileges. If the privilege or the grant option
held by the first user is being revoked and dependent privileges
exist, those dependent privileges are also revoked if
CASCADE is specified; if it is not, the revoke action
will fail. This recursive revocation only affects privileges that
were granted through a chain of users that is traceable to the user
that is the subject of this REVOKE command.
Thus, the affected users might effectively keep the privilege if it
was also granted through other users.
When revoking privileges on a table, the corresponding column privileges (if any) are automatically revoked on each column of the table, as well. On the other hand, if a role has been granted privileges on a table, then revoking the same privileges from individual columns will have no effect.
When revoking membership in a role, GRANT OPTION is instead
called ADMIN OPTION, but the behavior is similar.
Note that, in releases prior to PostgreSQL 16,
dependent privileges were not tracked for grants of role membership,
and thus CASCADE had no effect for role membership.
This is no longer the case.
Note also that this form of the command does not
allow the noise word GROUP
in role_specification.
Just as ADMIN OPTION can be removed from an existing
role grant, it is also possible to revoke INHERIT OPTION
or SET OPTION. This is equivalent to setting the value
of the corresponding option to FALSE.
A user can only revoke privileges that were granted directly by
that user. If, for example, user A has granted a privilege with
grant option to user B, and user B has in turn granted it to user
C, then user A cannot revoke the privilege directly from C.
Instead, user A could revoke the grant option from user B and use
the CASCADE option so that the privilege is
in turn revoked from user C. For another example, if both A and B
have granted the same privilege to C, A can revoke their own grant
but not B's grant, so C will still effectively have the privilege.
When a non-owner of an object attempts to REVOKE privileges
on the object, the command will fail outright if the user has no
privileges whatsoever on the object. As long as some privilege is
available, the command will proceed, but it will revoke only those
privileges for which the user has grant options. The REVOKE ALL
PRIVILEGES forms will issue a warning message if no grant options are
held, while the other forms will issue a warning if grant options for
any of the privileges specifically named in the command are not held.
(In principle these statements apply to the object owner as well, but
since the owner is always treated as holding all grant options, the
cases can never occur.)
If a superuser chooses to issue a GRANT or REVOKE
command, the command is performed as though it were issued by the
owner of the affected object. (Since roles do not have owners, in the
case of a GRANT of role membership, the command is
performed as though it were issued by the bootstrap superuser.)
Since all privileges ultimately come
from the object owner (possibly indirectly via chains of grant options),
it is possible for a superuser to revoke all privileges, but this might
require use of CASCADE as stated above.
REVOKE can also be done by a role
that is not the owner of the affected object, but is a member of the role
that owns the object, or is a member of a role that holds privileges
WITH GRANT OPTION on the object. In this case the
command is performed as though it were issued by the containing role that
actually owns the object or holds the privileges
WITH GRANT OPTION. For example, if table
t1 is owned by role g1, of which role
u1 is a member, then u1 can revoke privileges
on t1 that are recorded as being granted by g1.
This would include grants made by u1 as well as by other
members of role g1.
If the role executing REVOKE holds privileges
indirectly via more than one role membership path, it is unspecified
which containing role will be used to perform the command. In such cases
it is best practice to use SET ROLE to become the specific
role you want to do the REVOKE as. Failure to do so might
lead to revoking privileges other than the ones you intended, or not
revoking anything at all.
See Section 5.7 for more information about specific privilege types, as well as how to inspect objects' privileges.
Revoke insert privilege for the public on table
films:
REVOKE INSERT ON films FROM PUBLIC;
Revoke all privileges from user manuel on view
kinds:
REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES ON kinds FROM manuel;
Note that this actually means “revoke all privileges that I granted”.
Revoke membership in role admins from user joe:
REVOKE admins FROM joe;
The compatibility notes of the GRANT command
apply analogously to REVOKE.
The keyword RESTRICT or CASCADE
is required according to the standard, but PostgreSQL
assumes RESTRICT by default.