prestodb/presto · warning · SQLFeatureNotSupportedException

privileges not supported

Error message

privileges not supported

What it means

PrestoDatabaseMetaData.getColumnPrivileges() unconditionally throws SQLFeatureNotSupportedException. Presto's protocol exposes no per-column grant/revoke metadata, so the driver declares this DatabaseMetaData capability as unsupported rather than returning an empty result set. Any tooling introspecting column privileges will fail.

Source

Thrown at presto-jdbc/src/main/java/com/facebook/presto/jdbc/PrestoDatabaseMetaData.java:993

                "FROM system.jdbc.columns");

        List<String> filters = new ArrayList<>();
        emptyStringEqualsFilter(filters, "TABLE_CAT", catalog);
        emptyStringLikeFilter(filters, "TABLE_SCHEM", schemaPattern);
        optionalStringLikeFilter(filters, "TABLE_NAME", tableNamePattern);
        optionalStringLikeFilter(filters, "COLUMN_NAME", columnNamePattern);
        buildFilters(query, filters);

        query.append("\nORDER BY TABLE_CAT, TABLE_SCHEM, TABLE_NAME, ORDINAL_POSITION");

        return select(query.toString());
    }

    @Override
    public ResultSet getColumnPrivileges(String catalog, String schema, String table, String columnNamePattern)
            throws SQLException
    {
        throw new SQLFeatureNotSupportedException("privileges not supported");
    }

    @Override
    public ResultSet getTablePrivileges(String catalog, String schemaPattern, String tableNamePattern)
            throws SQLException
    {
        throw new SQLFeatureNotSupportedException("privileges not supported");
    }

    @Override
    public ResultSet getBestRowIdentifier(String catalog, String schema, String table, int scope, boolean nullable)
            throws SQLException
    {
        throw new SQLFeatureNotSupportedException("row identifiers not supported");
    }

    @Override
    public ResultSet getVersionColumns(String catalog, String schema, String table)

View on GitHub (pinned to 55bb57d202)

Solutions

1. Catch SQLFeatureNotSupportedException and treat as 'privileges not available'
2. Skip privilege introspection for Presto catalogs in your tooling configuration
3. Query Presto's own system metadata tables (e.g. system.metadata) for what is available instead

// capability check before calling
DatabaseMetaData md = conn.getMetaData();
// Presto does not support column privileges; guard by product name
if (md.getDatabaseProductName().contains("Presto")) {
    return Collections.emptyList();
}

try (ResultSet rs = md.getColumnPrivileges(catalog, schema, table, colPattern)) {
    return readPrivileges(rs);
} catch (SQLFeatureNotSupportedException e) {
    return Collections.emptyList();
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling DatabaseMetaData.getColumnPrivileges(catalog, schema, table, columnNamePattern) on a Presto connection; schema-migration or security-audit tools that enumerate grants per column.

Common situations: Database administration GUIs (DBeaver, DataGrip) probing privileges while expanding the tree; ORM schema tooling (e.g. hibernate reverse engineering) collecting full metadata; migration frameworks doing permission diffs.

Related errors

• row identifiers not supported
• version columns not supported
• primary keys not supported
• Result set type must be TYPE_FORWARD_ONLY
• Result set concurrency must be CONCUR_READ_ONLY

AI-assisted analysis of prestodb/presto@55bb57d202 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/feb6d9564ba7cd14. Report an issue: GitHub.