Structured Query Language/Managing Rights
For multiuser systems like DBMSs, it is necessary to grant and revoke rights for manipulating its objects. The GRANT command defines which user can manipulate (create, read, change, drop, ...) which object (tables, views, indexes, sequences, triggers, ...).
GRANT <privilege_name>
ON <object_name>
TO [ <user_name> | <role_name> | PUBLIC ]
[WITH GRANT OPTION];
The REVOKE statement deprives the granted rights.
REVOKE <privilege_name>
ON <object_name>
FROM [ <user_name> | <role_name> | PUBLIC ];
The example statement grants SELECT and INSERT on table person to the user hibernate. The second statement removes the granted rights.
GRANT SELECT, INSERT ON person TO hibernate;
REVOKE SELECT, INSERT ON person FROM hibernate;
Privileges
editPrivileges are actions that users can perform. The SQL standard supports only a limited list of privileges, whereas real implementations offer a great bunch of different privileges. The list consists of: SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE <object_type>, DROP <object_type>, EXECUTE, ... .
Object Types
editThe list of object types, to which privileges may be granted, is short in the SQL standard and long for real implementations. It consists of tables, views, indexes, sequences, triggers, procedures, ... .
Roles / Public
editIf there is a great number of users connecting to the DBMS, it is helpful to group users with identical rights to a role and grant privileges not to the individual users but the role. To do so, the role must be created by a CREATE ROLE statement. Afterward, users are joined with this role.
-- Create a role
-- (MySQL supports only predefined roles with special semantics).
CREATE ROLE department_human_resources;
-- Enrich the role with rights
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON person TO department_human_resources;
GRANT SELECT, INSERT ON hobby TO department_human_resources;
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON person_hobby TO department_human_resources;
-- Join users with the role
GRANT department_human_resources TO user_1;
GRANT department_human_resources TO user_2;
Instead of individual usernames, the keyword PUBLIC denotes all known users.
-- Everybody shall be allowed to read the rows of the 'person' table.
GRANT SELECT ON person TO PUBLIC;
Grant Option
editIf a DBA wants to delegate the managing of rights to special users, he can grant privileges to them and extend the statement with the phrase 'WITH GRANT OPTION'. This enables the users to grant the received privileges to any other user.
-- User 'hibernate' gets the right to pass the SELECT privilege on table 'person' to any other user.
GRANT SELECT ON person TO hibernate WITH GRANT OPTION;