Re: Table bloat in 8.3

On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 02:03:22PM -0500, pgsql-general(at)ian(dot)org wrote:
> I have several tables that when I run VACUUM FULL on, they are under 200k,
> but after a day of records getting added they grow to 10 to 20 megabytes.
> They get new inserts and a small number of deletes and updates.
>
> A normal VACUUM does not shrink the table size, but FULL does, or dumping
> and restoring the database to a test server.

I'd not expect to use a FULL vacuum as part of routine maintaince.
Normally, tables like this will grow until they reach some steady state
and then stay there. 14MB seems a bit big for something that you'd
expect to fit in 200KB though. Autovacuum is enabled by default in 8.3,
but has it been disabled for some reason here?

A useful thing to post would be the output of a VACUUM VERBOSE on this
table when it's grown for a day. It may give some clue as to what's
going on.

Sam