Re: Database size stays constant but disk space keeps shrinking -- postgres 9.1

From: Micky Gough <mgough(at)squiz(dot)com(dot)au>
To: Greg Williamson <gwilliamson39(at)yahoo(dot)com>
Cc: "pgsql-admin(at)postgresql(dot)org" <pgsql-admin(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Database size stays constant but disk space keeps shrinking -- postgres 9.1
Date: 2012-09-27 22:48:37
Message-ID: CAPWZr2d=CYjfFUjcaiyVRwyJvpZ4pz4viTsiYCX4Tb3ZHr316A@mail.gmail.com
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Hi Greg,

On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 8:05 AM, Greg Williamson <gwilliamson39(at)yahoo(dot)com>wrote:

>
> I have a postgres database, 9.1.3, which shows a fairly constant amount of
> space used by postgres, but total disk space kees shrinking.
> If I restart postgres the space on my file system returns.
>

It sounds like (maybe?) Postgres is writing to a file that has been
deleted. You won't be able to see the file using ls, so it's hard to track.
Restarting postgres will release the lock on the inode and the filesystem
flushes it.

You can check for deleted files that are being held open using lsof |grep
deleted.

Micky

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