Dynamic paths for postgres file_fdw (csv)

Question

I've got a postgres database which relies on the use of foreign tables to support the loading of large data sets based on user-provided (system sanitized) tables. I'd use COPY, but the tables loaded on a recurring (but non-daily) cycle and have complex load parameters which we've built into functions (using a combination of UPDATE WHERE, DELETE WHERE, TRUNCATE AND INSERT, INSERT, ON CONFLICT)

The process works well, and is stable. While I'm generally happy with it, I realize that it opens up the possibility that at some point the file paths specified in the CREATE FOREIGN TABLE command will change (e.g. from /home/postgres/path_primary/table.csv to /home/postgres/path_secondary/table.csv).

My question: Is there a way to point the base of the file path to a non-static value to abstract that change? Or would I be better off writing a script to collect the list of foreign tables, drop them, and rebuild the DDL with new filepath arguments?

Answer 1

My question: Is there a way to point the base of the file path to a non-static value to abstract that change? Or would I be better off writing a script to collect the list of foreign tables, drop them, and rebuild the DDL with new filepath arguments?

You can point to a symlink. However, I wouldn't. I would keep things running just the way you're doing it now. What's the reason to do that? I imagine under any reasonable load the DDL is not an issue. But, it may be worth experimenting and reporting back.