From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2019 19:43:37 +0000 (-0500)
Subject: Doc: clarify use of RECURSIVE in WITH.
X-Git-Url: http://git.postgresql.org/gitweb/-?a=commitdiff_plain;h=5b805886ca11d5d74217ab1f12395ad54507d4d5;p=users%2Fc2main%2Fpostgres.git

Doc: clarify use of RECURSIVE in WITH.

Apparently some people misinterpreted the syntax as being that
RECURSIVE is a prefix of individual WITH queries.  It's a modifier
for the WITH clause as a whole, so state that more clearly.

Discussion: https://postgr.es/m/ca53c6ce-a0c6-b14a-a8e3-162f0b2cc119@a-kretschmer.de
---

diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml
index 06d611b64c..691e402803 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/ref/select.sgml
@@ -273,6 +273,14 @@ TABLE [ ONLY ] <replaceable class="parameter">table_name</replaceable> [ * ]
     that are earlier in the <literal>WITH</literal> list.
    </para>
 
+   <para>
+    When there are multiple queries in the <literal>WITH</literal>
+    clause, <literal>RECURSIVE</literal> should be written only once,
+    immediately after <literal>WITH</literal>.  It applies to all queries
+    in the <literal>WITH</literal> clause, though it has no effect on
+    queries that do not use recursion or forward references.
+   </para>
+
    <para>
     The primary query and the <literal>WITH</literal> queries are all
     (notionally) executed at the same time.  This implies that the effects of