PostgreSQL 8.0.0rc2 Documentation
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# 42.31. System Views

In addition to the system catalogs, PostgreSQL provides a number of built-in views. The system views provide convenient access to some commonly used queries on the system catalogs. Some of these views provide access to internal server state, as well.

Table 42-31 lists the system views described here. More detailed documentation of each view follows below. There are some additional views that provide access to the results of the statistics collector; they are described in Table 23-1.

The information schema (Chapter 30) provides an alternative set of views which overlap the functionality of the system views. Since the information schema is SQL-standard whereas the views described here are PostgreSQL-specific, it's usually better to use the information schema if it provides all the information you need.

Except where noted, all the views described here are read-only.

Table 42-31. System Views

View Name | Purpose
--- | ---
`pg_indexes` | indexes
`pg_locks` | currently held locks
`pg_rules` | rules
`pg_settings` | parameter settings
`pg_stats` | planner statistics
`pg_tables` | tables
`pg_user` | database users
`pg_views` | views

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