SYSK 170: Under the Hood of SQL System Objects

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Want to know what’s inside sp_help stored proc? How about TABLE_PRIVILEGES view?

 

All the system objects definitions are now stored in the hidden read-only resource database (a.k.a. RDB) physically persisted in mssqlsystemresource.mdf. 

 

You can view the system objects definitions by running the following query:

select object_definition(object_id)

from sys.system_objects

where name = 'sys_object_name_here'

 

If you’re interested in learning more about RDB, there is a good article at http://www.extremeexperts.com/sql/yukon/resourcedatabase.aspx.