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Can I get some feedback on how / why this one was off topic:

What permissions are needed to prevent ERROR: permission denied for tablespace pg_global in RDS?

It's not clear to me whether I've neglected to include some information that might otherwise make it on-topic, or somehow touched a nerve.

My general assumption was that asking about the idiosyncrasies of Postgres permissions model combined with AWS RDS refusal to give superuser access would be on-topic for a DBA specialist site. Though I couldn't explicitly back that up with the details on the On Topic help page for this site.

If it really doesn't belong here, is there somewhere else on the SE network this would be better placed? It doesn't feel like an SO question.

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I came across your question in Close Votes Review.

From the information available there, it seemed you had answered your own question with the comment:

@mustaccio not sure why I missed it in the question, RDS doesn't allow you to grant CREATE on a tablespace (apparently). – Philip Couling 18 hours ago

That is, it seemed the question was a trivial one due to an oversight. Hence "too localized" seemed the right closure reason ("this could be because your code has a typo, basic error, or is not relevant to most of our audience").

The other two comments also seemed not to have been addressed:

Doesn't the PostgreSQL log file tell you exactly what statement was executing when the error was thrown? – jjanes 23 hours ago
Doesn't the documentation page you link to state explicitly what privilege the function requires? – mustaccio 21 hours ago

On reflection, and with the greater tools available outside the limited Review Task view, I see you had edited your question - just not made it clear you had addressed the points raised in comments. The comments had not been flagged as No Longer Needed either. It was hard to see what had happened.

Now you say:

And as it happens I've found a working solution right before commenting so the question was in fact answerable all along.

Which is good to hear, and I'd be happy to reopen for that reason alone in most cases. Regardless, I see my initial view of the question was incorrect and will therefore retract my close 'vote'. The only way I can do that (as a moderator) is to reopen the question.

For future questions, it would be helpful to make it clear you have addressed comments and ideally flagged any that no longer serve their primary purpose of leading to improvements in the parent post. I have removed those comments now.

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    That's good feedback, especially on flagging comments that are no-longer needed.
    – Philip Couling
    Mar 27 at 13:05
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Your question is "too localised".

You have an unknown proprietary application that requires a privilege that the AWS RDS, a managed service, does not allow. To solve the problem you need to modify either the application or the service, neither of which seems possible. Not sure what kind of answer you expect, and even if there were an answer, how it would be useful to anyone but you.

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  • Could I point out, what you are saying is that the question has the answer "this is impossible". The question asks about a specific postgres function (pg_tablespace_size), not the specific service using that function (deliberately unnamed). And as it happens I've found a working solution right before commenting so the question was in fact answerable all along. I guess in future I could give less context about the problem I'm facing and avoid mentioning the unnamed service all together. That often cuts against the grain for SE sites, but I'll bear that in mind in future.
    – Philip Couling
    Mar 27 at 12:30
  • ... And is it normal for DBAs to be able to edit the application source? I was under the impression that was usually outside a DBA's remit.
    – Philip Couling
    Mar 27 at 12:33
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    @PhilipCouling if you've found a solution, you should self-answer your question, and cast a reopen vote.
    – Erik Darling
    Mar 27 at 12:51
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    @ErikDarling A fine plan, except for two things: (1) You can't answer a closed question; and (2) Casting a reopen vote on your own question requires 250 rep, which Philip does not have.
    – Paul White Mod
    Mar 27 at 13:00
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    @PaulWhite this is worse than parliament.
    – Erik Darling
    Mar 27 at 13:47
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    @ErikDarling Yes, yes it is
    – Paul White Mod
    Mar 27 at 13:54

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