REVOKE(7)

💅 REVOKE(7) — the glow-up edition ✨

okay so this is the PostgreSQL 13.23 documentation for REVOKE, bestie, and we are gonna get into it. no cap, this one's all about taking privileges away. let's go 🎀

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🌸 NAME 🌸

REVOKE — remove access privileges

like, bye-bye permissions, we hardly knew ye 💀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

okay bestie, here's the full menu of syntax forms — they're long but they're all here, no cap:

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 [, ...]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
    { { SELECT | INSERT | UPDATE | REFERENCES } ( column_name [, ...] )
    [, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] ( column_name [, ...] ) }
    ON [ TABLE ] table_name [, ...]
    FROM 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 [, ...]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
    { { CREATE | CONNECT | TEMPORARY | TEMP } [, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON DATABASE database_name [, ...]
    FROM role_specification [, ...]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
    { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON DOMAIN domain_name [, ...]
    FROM role_specification [, ...]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
    { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER fdw_name [, ...]
    FROM role_specification [, ...]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
    { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON FOREIGN SERVER server_name [, ...]
    FROM 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 [, ...]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
    { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON LANGUAGE lang_name [, ...]
    FROM role_specification [, ...]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
    { { SELECT | UPDATE } [, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON LARGE OBJECT loid [, ...]
    FROM role_specification [, ...]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
    { { CREATE | USAGE } [, ...] | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON SCHEMA schema_name [, ...]
    FROM role_specification [, ...]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
    { CREATE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON TABLESPACE tablespace_name [, ...]
    FROM role_specification [, ...]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

REVOKE [ GRANT OPTION FOR ]
    { USAGE | ALL [ PRIVILEGES ] }
    ON TYPE type_name [, ...]
    FROM role_specification [, ...]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

REVOKE [ ADMIN OPTION FOR ]
    role_name [, ...] FROM role_specification [, ...]
    [ GRANTED BY role_specification ]
    [ CASCADE | RESTRICT ]

and role_specification can be any of these, periodt:

    [ GROUP ] role_name
  | PUBLIC
  | CURRENT_USER
  | SESSION_USER

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the tea is: REVOKE takes privileges that were previously handed out and yoinks them back from one or more roles. the keyword PUBLIC is doing main character energy here — it refers to the implicitly defined group of all roles. literally everyone. 🫶

if you wanna know what all the privilege types actually mean, go read the GRANT(7) command description, because it's all explained there. iykyk.

important vibe check 🚨: any particular role will have the sum of privileges granted directly to it, privileges granted to any role it's presently a member of, and privileges granted to PUBLIC. so like, 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. the math is mathing, bestie.

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. slay.

okay so plot twist: 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's not, the revoke action will fail. 😭 and this recursive revocation only affects privileges that were granted through a chain of users that's traceable to the user that's the subject of this REVOKE command. so like, the affected users might effectively keep the privilege if it was also granted through other users. chaotic but fair.

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. not me learning that the hard way...

when revoking membership in a role, GRANT OPTION is instead called ADMIN OPTION, but the behavior is similar. this form of the command also allows a GRANTED BY option, but that option is currently ignored (except for checking the existence of the named role). 👀 note also that this form of the command does not allow the noise word GROUP in role_specification.

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🔥 NOTES 🔥

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. it's giving "you can't take back what you didn't give." 💅

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 all privileges ultimately come from the object owner (possibly indirectly via chains of grant options), it's 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. ⚠️ this is like, the most important warning here, fr fr.

see Section 5.7 for more information about specific privilege types, as well as how to inspect objects' privileges. 📖

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

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;

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👑 COMPATIBILITY 👑

the compatibility notes of the GRANT(7) command apply analogously to REVOKE. the keyword RESTRICT or CASCADE is required according to the standard, but PostgreSQL assumes RESTRICT by default. so we're out here just vibing with default behavior. ✨

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💖 SEE ALSO 💖

GRANT(7), ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES (ALTER_DEFAULT_PRIVILEGES(7))

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and that's a wrap on REVOKE, bestie! shoutout to PostgreSQL 13.23, 2025, and the REVOKE(7) fam — love y'all, bye! 💜🌸