> Neil Conway <nconway@klamath.dyndns.org> writes:

> > This patch improves the documentation of the UPDATE and ALTER TABLE
> > commands to elaborate on the effect of specifying an "ONLY" clause.
>
> Unfortunately this is still only half the truth ... see the
> SQL_INHERITANCE configuration variable.

Okay, I've attached an updated patch with more information on
SQL_INHERITANCE and inheritance behavior in prior releases.

Neil Conway

doc/src/sgml/ref/alter_table.sgml

 <!--
-$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/alter_table.sgml,v 1.48 2002/08/02 18:15:04 tgl Exp $
+$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/alter_table.sgml,v 1.49 2002/08/15 02:59:18 momjian Exp $
 PostgreSQL documentation
 -->
 
@@ -60,7 +60,15 @@ ALTER TABLE <replaceable class="PARAMETER">table</replaceable>
       <term><replaceable class="PARAMETER"> table </replaceable></term>
       <listitem>
        <para>
-	The name (possibly schema-qualified) of an existing table to alter.
+	The name (possibly schema-qualified) of an existing table to
+	alter. If <literal>ONLY</> is specified, only that table is
+	altered. If <literal>ONLY</> is not specified, the table and all
+	its descendant tables (if any) are updated. <literal>*</> can be
+	appended to the table name to indicate that descendant tables are
+	to be scanned, but in the current version, this is the default
+	behavior.  (In releases before 7.1, <literal>ONLY</> was the
+	default behavior.)  The default can be altered by changing the
+	<option>SQL_INHERITANCE</option> configuration option.
        </para>
       </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml

 <!--
-$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml,v 1.55 2002/08/04 19:48:09 momjian Exp $
+$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml,v 1.56 2002/08/15 02:59:18 momjian Exp $
 PostgreSQL documentation
 -->
 
@@ -131,7 +131,9 @@ where <replaceable class="PARAMETER">from_item</replaceable> can be:
 	tables (if any) are scanned.  <literal>*</> can be appended to the
 	table name to indicate that descendant tables are to be scanned, but
 	in the current version, this is the default behavior.  (In releases
-	before 7.1, <literal>ONLY</> was the default behavior.)
+	before 7.1, <literal>ONLY</> was the default behavior.)  The
+	default behavior can be modified by changing the
+	<option>SQL_INHERITANCE</option> configuration option.
        </para>
       </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

doc/src/sgml/ref/update.sgml

 <!--
-$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/update.sgml,v 1.19 2002/04/23 02:07:16 tgl Exp $
+$Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/doc/src/sgml/ref/update.sgml,v 1.20 2002/08/15 02:59:18 momjian Exp $
 PostgreSQL documentation
 -->
 
@@ -40,7 +40,15 @@ UPDATE [ ONLY ] <replaceable class="PARAMETER">table</replaceable> SET <replacea
       <term><replaceable class="PARAMETER">table</replaceable></term>
       <listitem>
        <para>
-	The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing table.
+	The name (optionally schema-qualified) of an existing table. If
+	<literal>ONLY</> is specified, only that table is updated.  If
+	<literal>ONLY</> is not specified, the table and all its
+	descendant tables (if any) are updated. <literal>*</> can be
+	appended to the table name to indicate that descendant tables are
+	to be scanned, but in the current version, this is the default
+	behavior.  (In releases before 7.1, <literal>ONLY</> was the
+	default behavior.)  The default can be altered by changing the
+	<option>SQL_INHERITANCE</option> configuration option.
        </para>
       </listitem>
      </varlistentry>