'\" t
.\"     Title: ALTER SUBSCRIPTION
.\"    Author: The PostgreSQL Global Development Group
.\" Generator: DocBook XSL Stylesheets vsnapshot <http://docbook.sf.net/>
.\"      Date: 2026
.\"    Manual: PostgreSQL 17.10 Documentation
.\"    Source: PostgreSQL 17.10
.\"  Language: English
.\"
.TH "ALTER SUBSCRIPTION" "7" "2026" "PostgreSQL 17.10" "PostgreSQL 17.10 Documentation"
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.SH "NAME"
ALTER_SUBSCRIPTION \- change the definition of a subscription
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.sp
.nf
ALTER SUBSCRIPTION \fIname\fR CONNECTION \*(Aq\fIconninfo\fR\*(Aq
ALTER SUBSCRIPTION \fIname\fR SET PUBLICATION \fIpublication_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH ( \fIpublication_option\fR [= \fIvalue\fR] [, \&.\&.\&. ] ) ]
ALTER SUBSCRIPTION \fIname\fR ADD PUBLICATION \fIpublication_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH ( \fIpublication_option\fR [= \fIvalue\fR] [, \&.\&.\&. ] ) ]
ALTER SUBSCRIPTION \fIname\fR DROP PUBLICATION \fIpublication_name\fR [, \&.\&.\&.] [ WITH ( \fIpublication_option\fR [= \fIvalue\fR] [, \&.\&.\&. ] ) ]
ALTER SUBSCRIPTION \fIname\fR REFRESH PUBLICATION [ WITH ( \fIrefresh_option\fR [= \fIvalue\fR] [, \&.\&.\&. ] ) ]
ALTER SUBSCRIPTION \fIname\fR ENABLE
ALTER SUBSCRIPTION \fIname\fR DISABLE
ALTER SUBSCRIPTION \fIname\fR SET ( \fIsubscription_parameter\fR [= \fIvalue\fR] [, \&.\&.\&. ] )
ALTER SUBSCRIPTION \fIname\fR SKIP ( \fIskip_option\fR = \fIvalue\fR )
ALTER SUBSCRIPTION \fIname\fR OWNER TO { \fInew_owner\fR | CURRENT_ROLE | CURRENT_USER | SESSION_USER }
ALTER SUBSCRIPTION \fIname\fR RENAME TO \fInew_name\fR
.fi
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
\fBALTER SUBSCRIPTION\fR
can change most of the subscription properties that can be specified in
CREATE SUBSCRIPTION (\fBCREATE_SUBSCRIPTION\fR(7))\&.
.PP
You must own the subscription to use
\fBALTER SUBSCRIPTION\fR\&. To rename a subscription or alter the owner, you must have
CREATE
permission on the database\&. In addition, to alter the owner, you must be able to
SET ROLE
to the new owning role\&. If the subscription has
password_required=false, only superusers can modify it\&.
.PP
When refreshing a publication we remove the relations that are no longer part of the publication and we also remove the table synchronization slots if there are any\&. It is necessary to remove these slots so that the resources allocated for the subscription on the remote host are released\&. If due to network breakdown or some other error,
PostgreSQL
is unable to remove the slots, an error will be reported\&. To proceed in this situation, the user either needs to retry the operation or disassociate the slot from the subscription and drop the subscription as explained in
DROP SUBSCRIPTION (\fBDROP_SUBSCRIPTION\fR(7))\&.
.PP
Commands
\fBALTER SUBSCRIPTION \&.\&.\&. REFRESH PUBLICATION\fR,
\fBALTER SUBSCRIPTION \&.\&.\&. {SET|ADD|DROP} PUBLICATION \&.\&.\&.\fR
with
refresh
option as
true
and
\fBALTER SUBSCRIPTION \&.\&.\&. SET (failover = true|false)\fR
cannot be executed inside a transaction block\&.
.PP
Commands
\fBALTER SUBSCRIPTION \&.\&.\&. REFRESH PUBLICATION\fR
and
\fBALTER SUBSCRIPTION \&.\&.\&. {SET|ADD|DROP} PUBLICATION \&.\&.\&.\fR
with
refresh
option as
true
also cannot be executed when the subscription has
two_phase
commit enabled, unless
copy_data
is
false\&. See column
subtwophasestate
of
pg_subscription
to know the actual two\-phase state\&.
.SH "PARAMETERS"
.PP
\fIname\fR
.RS 4
The name of a subscription whose properties are to be altered\&.
.RE
.PP
CONNECTION \*(Aq\fIconninfo\fR\*(Aq
.RS 4
This clause replaces the connection string originally set by
CREATE SUBSCRIPTION (\fBCREATE_SUBSCRIPTION\fR(7))\&. See there for more information\&.
.RE
.PP
SET PUBLICATION \fIpublication_name\fR
.br
ADD PUBLICATION \fIpublication_name\fR
.br
DROP PUBLICATION \fIpublication_name\fR
.RS 4
These forms change the list of subscribed publications\&.
SET
replaces the entire list of publications with a new list,
ADD
adds additional publications to the list of publications, and
DROP
removes the publications from the list of publications\&. We allow non\-existent publications to be specified in
ADD
and
SET
variants so that users can add those later\&. See
CREATE SUBSCRIPTION (\fBCREATE_SUBSCRIPTION\fR(7))
for more information\&. By default, this command will also act like
REFRESH PUBLICATION\&.
.sp
\fIpublication_option\fR
specifies additional options for this operation\&. The supported options are:
.PP
refresh (boolean)
.RS 4
When false, the command will not try to refresh table information\&.
REFRESH PUBLICATION
should then be executed separately\&. The default is
true\&.
.RE
.sp
Additionally, the options described under
REFRESH PUBLICATION
may be specified, to control the implicit refresh operation\&.
.RE
.PP
REFRESH PUBLICATION
.RS 4
Fetch missing table information from publisher\&. This will start replication of tables that were added to the subscribed\-to publications since
\fBCREATE SUBSCRIPTION\fR
or the last invocation of
\fBREFRESH PUBLICATION\fR\&.
.sp
\fIrefresh_option\fR
specifies additional options for the refresh operation\&. The supported options are:
.PP
copy_data (boolean)
.RS 4
Specifies whether to copy pre\-existing data in the publications that are being subscribed to when the replication starts\&. The default is
true\&.
.sp
Previously subscribed tables are not copied, even if a table\*(Aqs row filter
WHERE
clause has since been modified\&.
.sp
See
Notes
for details of how
copy_data = true
can interact with the
origin
parameter\&.
.sp
See the
binary
parameter of
\fBCREATE SUBSCRIPTION\fR
for details about copying pre\-existing data in binary format\&.
.RE
.RE
.PP
ENABLE
.RS 4
Enables a previously disabled subscription, starting the logical replication worker at the end of the transaction\&.
.RE
.PP
DISABLE
.RS 4
Disables a running subscription, stopping the logical replication worker at the end of the transaction\&.
.RE
.PP
SET ( \fIsubscription_parameter\fR [= \fIvalue\fR] [, \&.\&.\&. ] )
.RS 4
This clause alters parameters originally set by
CREATE SUBSCRIPTION (\fBCREATE_SUBSCRIPTION\fR(7))\&. See there for more information\&. The parameters that can be altered are
slot_name,
synchronous_commit,
binary,
streaming,
disable_on_error,
password_required,
run_as_owner,
origin, and
failover\&. Only a superuser can set
password_required = false\&.
.sp
When altering the
slot_name, the
failover
and
two_phase
property values of the named slot may differ from the counterpart
failover
and
two_phase
parameters specified in the subscription\&. When creating the slot, ensure the slot properties
failover
and
two_phase
match their counterpart parameters of the subscription\&. Otherwise, the slot on the publisher may behave differently from what these subscription options say: for example, the slot on the publisher could either be synced to the standbys even when the subscription\*(Aqs
failover
option is disabled or could be disabled for sync even when the subscription\*(Aqs
failover
option is enabled\&.
.RE
.PP
SKIP ( \fIskip_option\fR = \fIvalue\fR )
.RS 4
Skips applying all changes of the remote transaction\&. If incoming data violates any constraints, logical replication will stop until it is resolved\&. By using the
\fBALTER SUBSCRIPTION \&.\&.\&. SKIP\fR
command, the logical replication worker skips all data modification changes within the transaction\&. This option has no effect on the transactions that are already prepared by enabling
two_phase
on the subscriber\&. After the logical replication worker successfully skips the transaction or finishes a transaction, the LSN (stored in
pg_subscription\&.subskiplsn) is cleared\&. See
Section\ \&29.6
for the details of logical replication conflicts\&.
.sp
\fIskip_option\fR
specifies options for this operation\&. The supported option is:
.PP
lsn (pg_lsn)
.RS 4
Specifies the finish LSN of the remote transaction whose changes are to be skipped by the logical replication worker\&. The finish LSN is the LSN at which the transaction is either committed or prepared\&. Skipping individual subtransactions is not supported\&. Setting
NONE
resets the LSN\&.
.RE
.RE
.PP
\fInew_owner\fR
.RS 4
The user name of the new owner of the subscription\&.
.RE
.PP
\fInew_name\fR
.RS 4
The new name for the subscription\&.
.RE
.PP
When specifying a parameter of type
boolean, the
=
\fIvalue\fR
part can be omitted, which is equivalent to specifying
TRUE\&.
.SH "EXAMPLES"
.PP
Change the publication subscribed by a subscription to
insert_only:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
ALTER SUBSCRIPTION mysub SET PUBLICATION insert_only;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.PP
Disable (stop) the subscription:
.sp
.if n \{\
.RS 4
.\}
.nf
ALTER SUBSCRIPTION mysub DISABLE;
.fi
.if n \{\
.RE
.\}
.SH "COMPATIBILITY"
.PP
\fBALTER SUBSCRIPTION\fR
is a
PostgreSQL
extension\&.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
CREATE SUBSCRIPTION (\fBCREATE_SUBSCRIPTION\fR(7)), DROP SUBSCRIPTION (\fBDROP_SUBSCRIPTION\fR(7)), CREATE PUBLICATION (\fBCREATE_PUBLICATION\fR(7)), ALTER PUBLICATION (\fBALTER_PUBLICATION\fR(7))