Duplicate comment on a table

Hello,

I am using JDBC to get the details about tables and seeing duplicates coming back for a handful of tables. My schema has over 300 tables. The code is very straightforward and as follows:

import java.sql.*;

public class MetaDataTest
{
public static void main(String[] args)
throws Exception
{
Class.forName("org.postgresql.Driver");
java.sql.Connection C = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/Pepper", "postgres", args[0]);
DatabaseMetaData meta = C.getMetaData();
ResultSet RS1 = meta.getTables(null, "people", "contact", null);
while (RS1.next() != false)
printResult(RS1, " ");
}

protected static void printResult(ResultSet RS, String header)
throws SQLException
{
StringBuilder str = new StringBuilder(header);
int count = RS.getMetaData().getColumnCount();
for (int i = 1; i <= count; ++i)
str.append(RS.getMetaData().getColumnName(i) + ":" + RS.getString(i) + "; ");
System.out.println(str.toString());
}
}

I am getting two records:

table_cat:null; table_schem:people; table_name:contact; table_type:TABLE; remarks:btree comparison function; type_cat:; type_schem:; type_name:; self_referencing_col_name:; ref_generation:;

table_cat:null; table_schem:people; table_name:contact; table_type:TABLE; remarks:blah blah; type_cat:; type_schem:; type_name:; self_referencing_col_name:; ref_generation:;

Notice how everything matches except for “remarks”. I posted a question on the JDBC mailing list and the issue was identified has having to do with the catalog tables. The query issued by the driver is similar to the following:

SELECT *
FROM pg_catalog.pg_class c
LEFT JOIN pg_catalog.pg_namespace n ON n.oid = c.relnamespace
LEFT JOIN pg_catalog.pg_description d ON (c.oid = d.objoid AND d.objsubid = 0)
WHERE c.relname = 'contact'

oid |relname|relnamespace|reltype|reloftype|relowner|relam|relfilenode|reltablespace|relpages|reltuples|relallvisible|reltoastrelid|relhasindex|relisshared|relpersistence|relkind|relnatts|relchecks|relhasrules|relhastriggers|relhassubclass|relrowsecurity|relforcerowsecurity|relispopulated|relreplident|relispartition|relrewrite|relfrozenxid|relminmxid|relacl |reloptions|relpartbound|oid |nspname|nspowner|nspacl |objoid|classoid|objsubid|description |

-----+-------+------------+-------+---------+--------+-----+-----------+-------------+--------+---------+-------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+--------------+-------+--------+---------+-----------+--------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+--------------+------------+--------------+----------+------------+----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------+------------+-----+-------+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+--------+--------+-------------------------+

17181|contact| 16743| 17183| 0| 10| 2| 17181| 0| 1| 26.0| 1| 17187|true |false |p |r | 21| 0|false |true |false |false |false |true |d |false | 0|1675 |1 |{postgres=arwdDxt/postgres,tildareadonly=r/postgres,tilda_app=arwdDxt/postgres,tilda_read_only=r/postgres}|NULL |[NULL] |16743|people | 10|{postgres=UC/postgres,tilda_app=UC/postgres,tilda_read_only=U/postgres}| 17181| 1255| 0|btree comparison function|

17181|contact| 16743| 17183| 0| 10| 2| 17181| 0| 1| 26.0| 1| 17187|true |false |p |r | 21| 0|false |true |false |false |false |true |d |false | 0|1675 |1 |{postgres=arwdDxt/postgres,tildareadonly=r/postgres,tilda_app=arwdDxt/postgres,tilda_read_only=r/postgres}|NULL |[NULL] |16743|people | 10|{postgres=UC/postgres,tilda_app=UC/postgres,tilda_read_only=U/postgres}| 17181| 1259| 0|blah blah |

So, there are TWO records in the table pg_catalog.pg_description for a given table. I have no idea how this might have occurred and I know it “survives” a backup/restore. I am not sure how to fix this. It was suggested I vacuum full the table and reset the comment, but that didn’t work:

VACUUM FULL FREEZE ANALYZE PEOPLE.contact;

COMMENT ON TABLE PEOPLE.Contact IS 'Blah';

I am refraining of course from simply deleting the offending row in pg_catalog.pg_description because I know this is terrible practice in general 😊 So unsure how I can fix this.

Thank you,
Laurent.