# Chris van Eijk: infinite recursion detected in policy: causes and fixes

> **Key Architectural Takeaway:** When PostgreSQL 17 raises 'infinite recursion detected in policy for relation', and what each fix costs on a million rows: from 0.09 ms to 6.6 seconds..

**Published:** 2026-10-10T00:00:00+00:00  
**Source:** Planet PostgreSQL  
**Category:** databases-storage  
**Canonical URL:** https://fosswire.org/news/chris-van-eijk-infinite-recursion-detected-in-policy-causes-.html  

## Executive Summary
When PostgreSQL 17 raises 'infinite recursion detected in policy for relation', and what each fix costs on a million rows: from 0.09 ms to 6.6 seconds.

## Architectural & Systems Analysis
From an OLTP/OLAP systems architecture, storage tiering, and data durability perspective:

- **Zero-Vendor Lock-in Formats:** Leveraging open specifications (e.g. Parquet, Iceberg) ensures multi-engine interoperability without ingestion lock-in.
- **Vector & In-Memory Throughput:** Modern memory layouts and SIMD-accelerated execution pipelines minimize latency in real-time retrieval.
- **Distributed Resiliency:** Decoupled storage and compute layers enable elastic horizontal scaling with strict ACID guarantees.

## Impact on the Open Ecosystem
Empowers data engineers with open, self-hosted alternatives to monopolistic cloud database providers.