Can I tell Postgres that a new constraint is valid without actually running the check?

Question

I have a constraint that ensures one of three columns is populated, and I'm adding a new column, so I'm replacing the old constraint with a four-column version. Since I know from the old constraint that one out of three columns must be populated, I can be sure that one out four will be populated and the new constraint is valid.

I know I can add it as NOT VALID and later validate it concurrently, and that's the kosher thing to do, but it's a bit of a waste of time for Postgres to validate all 5 billion valid rows. Can I mark it as valid without checking all the rows again? Alternatively, is there any downside to leaving it invalid indefinitely?

Answer 1

You can safely leave the check constraint invalid, if that doesn't bother you. I cannot think of any place where a check constraint is used for query planning, and it will be enforced for data modifications.

It should be safe to set convalidated to TRUE in pg_constraint in this case, but since you get no actual benefit from it, why do it?