it as a table in its own
     right.  This has two forms:

<programlisting>
ALTER TABLE measurement DETACH PARTITION measurement_y2006m02;
ALTER TABLE measurement DETACH PARTITION measurement_y2006m02 CONCURRENTLY;
</programlisting>

     These allow further operations to be performed on the data before
     it is dropped. For example, this is often a useful time to back up
     the data using <command>COPY</command>, <application>pg_dump</application>, or
     similar tools. It might also be a useful time to aggregate data
     into smaller formats, perform other data manipulations, or run
     reports.  The first form of the command requires an
     <literal>ACCESS EXCLUSIVE</literal> lock on the parent table.
     Adding the <literal>CONCURRENTLY</literal> qualifier as in the second
     form allows the detach operation to require only
     <literal>SHARE UPDATE EXCLUSIVE</literal> lock on the parent table, but see
     <link linkend="sql-altertable-detach-partition"><literal>ALTER TABLE ... DETACH PARTITION</literal></link>
     for details on the restrictions.
   </para>

   <para>
     Similarly we can add a new partition to handle new data. We can create an
     empty partition in the partitioned table just as the original partitions
     were created above:

<programlisting>
CREATE TABLE measurement_y2008m02 PARTITION OF measurement
    FOR VALUES FROM ('2008-02-01') TO ('2008-03-01')
    TABLESPACE fasttablespace;
</programlisting>

     As an alternative to creating a new partition, it is sometimes more
     convenient to create a new table separate from the partition structure
     and attach it as a partition later.  This allows new data to be loaded,
     checked, and transformed prior to it appearing in the partitioned table.
     Moreover, the <literal>ATTACH PARTITION</literal> operation requires
     only a <literal>SHARE UPDATE EXCLUSIVE</literal> lock on the
     partitioned table rather than the <literal>ACCESS EXCLUSIVE</literal>
     lock required by <command>CREATE TABLE ... PARTITION OF</command>,
     so it is more friendly to concurrent operations on the partitioned table;
     see <link linkend="sql-altertable-attach-partition"><literal>ALTER TABLE ... ATTACH PARTITION</literal></link>
     for additional details.  The
     <link linkend="sql-createtable-parms-like"><literal>CREATE TABLE ... LIKE</literal></link>
     option can be helpful to avoid tediously repeating the parent table's
     definition; for example:

<programlisting>
CREATE TABLE measurement_y2008m02
  (LIKE measurement INCLUDING DEFAULTS INCLUDING CONSTRAINTS)
  TABLESPACE fasttablespace;

ALTER TABLE measurement_y2008m02 ADD CONSTRAINT y2008m02
   CHECK ( logdate &gt;= DATE '2008-02-01' AND logdate &lt; DATE '2008-03-01' );

\copy measurement_y2008m02 from 'measurement_y2008m02'
-- possibly some other data preparation work

ALTER TABLE measurement ATTACH PARTITION measurement_y2008m02
    FOR VALUES FROM ('2008-02-01') TO ('2008-03-01' );
</programlisting>
    </para>

    <para>
     Note that when running the <command>ATTACH PARTITION</command> command,
     the table will be scanned to validate the partition constraint while
     holding an <literal>ACCESS EXCLUSIVE</literal> lock on that partition.
     As shown above, it is recommended to avoid this scan by creating a
     <literal>CHECK</literal> constraint matching the expected partition
     constraint on the table prior to attaching it.  Once the
     <command>ATTACH PARTITION</command> is complete, it is recommended to drop
     the now-redundant <literal>CHECK</literal> constraint.
     If the table being attached is itself a partitioned table, then each of its
     sub-partitions will be recursively locked and scanned until either a
     suitable <literal>CHECK</literal> constraint is encountered or the leaf
     partitions are reached.
    </para>

    <para>
     Similarly, if the partitioned table has a <literal>DEFAULT</literal>
     partition, it is recommended to