updateRole¶

On this page

Definition
Behavior
Required Access
Example

Definition¶

updateRole¶

Updates a user-defined role. The updateRole command must run on the role’s database.

An update to a field completely replaces the previous field’s values. To grant or remove roles or privileges without replacing all values, use one or more of the following commands:

Warning

An update to the privileges or roles array completely replaces the previous array’s values.

The updateRole command uses the following syntax. To update a role, you must provide the privileges array, roles array, or both:

copy

{
  updateRole: "<role>",
  privileges:
      [
        { resource: { <resource> }, actions: [ "<action>", ... ] },
        ...
      ],
  roles:
      [
        { role: "<role>", db: "<database>" } | "<role>",
        ...
      ],
  writeConcern: <write concern document>
}

The updateRole command has the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
`updateRole`	string	The name of the user-defined role role to update.
`privileges`	array	Optional. Required if you do not specify `roles` array. The privileges to grant the role. An update to the `privileges` array overrides the previous array’s values. For the syntax for specifying a privilege, see the `privileges` array.
`roles`	array	Optional. Required if you do not specify `privileges` array. The roles from which this role inherits privileges. An update to the `roles` array overrides the previous array’s values.
`writeConcern`	document	Optional. The level of write concern for the update operation. The `writeConcern` document takes the same fields as the `getLastError` command.

In the roles field, you can specify both built-in roles and user-defined role.

To specify a role that exists in the same database where updateRole runs, you can either specify the role with the name of the role:

copy

"readWrite"

Or you can specify the role with a document, as in:

copy

{ role: "<role>", db: "<database>" }

To specify a role that exists in a different database, specify the role with a document.

Behavior¶

A role’s privileges apply to the database where the role is created. The role can inherit privileges from other roles in its database. A role created on the admin database can include privileges that apply to all databases or to the cluster and can inherit privileges from roles in other databases.

Required Access¶

You must have the revokeRole action on all databases in order to update a role.

You must have the grantRole action on the database of each role in the roles array to update the array.

You must have the grantRole action on the database of each privilege in the privileges array to update the array. If a privilege’s resource spans databases, you must have grantRole on the admin database. A privilege spans databases if the privilege is any of the following:

a collection in all databases
all collections and all database
the cluster resource

Example¶

The following is an example of the updateRole command that updates the myClusterwideAdmin role on the admin database. While the privileges and the roles arrays are both optional, at least one of the two is required:

copy

db.adminCommand(
   {
     updateRole: "myClusterwideAdmin",
     privileges:
         [
           {
             resource: { db: "", collection: "" },
             actions: [ "find" , "update", "insert", "remove" ]
           }
         ],
     roles:
         [
           { role: "dbAdminAnyDatabase", db: "admin" }
         ],
     writeConcern: { w: "majority" }
   }
)

To view a role’s privileges, use the rolesInfo command.

← rolesInfo Replication Commands →