GDA: empty PostgreSQL table failed workaround

[Mark Johnson]

Previously, I had suggested a workaround for the empty PostgreSQL slots 
table problem.

I have now tried the work-around for the empty slots table problem with 
PostgreSQL.  The type SERIAL is simply a convenience, and not a real 
type.  I had hoped the convenience extended to ALTER TABLE, but it 
doesn't.  The following did not work:

gnucash_db=# alter table slots alter column slot_id type serial;
ERROR:  type "serial" does not exist

However, manually creating the sequence and setting a default value 
appear to work:
gnucash_db=# create sequence seq_slot_id;
CREATE SEQUENCE
gnucash_db=# alter table slots alter column slot_id set default 
nextval('seq_slot_id');
ALTER TABLE

and confirmed by:
gnucash_db=# \d+ slots

However, this did not work.  The logfile still indicates:
ERROR:  null value in column "slot_id" violates not-null 
constraint                                  STATEMENT:  INSERT INTO 
slots (obj_guid, name, slot_type, int64_val, string_val, double_val, 
timespec
_val, guid_val, numeric_val_num, numeric_val_denom) VALUES 
('391b8b5ede0a168f59664a8de0b4587f', 'sched-xaction/account', 5, NULL, 
NULL, NULL, '1969-12-31', 'ac336ec951601638920d70c6fd4b7119', 0, 1)

Issuing the following with psql:
select nextval('seq_slot_id');
confirms that the sequence works and counts up.

So I checked the table structure.  My default value has disappeared.  It 
appears that this was done when I first selected to save to this db.  
The following appears in the log file:
NOTICE:  CREATE TABLE / PRIMARY KEY will create implicit index 
"slots_pkey" for table "slots"
There are similar notices for all the other tables.

Additionally, this problem now shows with another table:
ERROR:  null value in column "recurrence_id" violates not-null 
constraint                            STATEMENT:  INSERT INTO 
recurrences (obj_guid, recurrence_mult, recurrence_period_type, 
recurrence_period_start) VALUES ('00000000002000e00000000000a89408', 1, 
'month', '2005-01-24')

Mark