Re: Need help - Regarding Data Compression in PostgreSQL.

I started feeling nobody wants to answer those questions but finally got a
reply :-)
Thanks a lot Scott.

- Salma

----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Marlowe" <scott(dot)marlowe(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: "salma" <salma(dot)khanam(at)applabs(dot)com>
Cc: <pgsql-novice(at)postgresql(dot)org>; <pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2008 5:36 AM
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Need help - Regarding Data Compression in PostgreSQL.

> On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 6:52 AM, salma <salma(dot)khanam(at)applabs(dot)com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'd like to know:
>> 1. If it is possible to compress data in the PostgreSQL.
>
> Ayup. Anything over a standard size gets compressed out of line into
> TOAST tables.
>
>> 2. What kind of compression, if any, is available in PostgreSQL.
>
> Standard unix compress I believe
>
>> 3. If compression is available, what kind of disk space savings can I
>> expect
>> using it.
>
> depends on how compressible your data is. The compression that's
> built into pgsql is focused on speed, not compression. So don't
> expect 99% compression or anything. But on highly compressible data
> you can expect it to compress quite well. Do an experiment with du
> and see what you get.
>
> A lot of this info is probably in the docs somewhere, but I'm not sure
> it's a faq or not.