Re: size of attributes table is too big

On 3/19/25 10:06, Siraj G wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I have a PG (v16) instance which is occupying around 1TB of storage. Out

Exact version of Postgres 16, include the x in 16.x.

> of this, around 350GB is occupied by the table pg_catalog.pg_attribute.
> Why is the catalog table's size so big?
>
> Here are the sizes:

How did you measure the sizes?

pg_attribute maintains information about table columns, how many table
columns do you have?

Are you creating/dropping tables on a regular basis?

Is autovacuum running properly?

Have you run VACUUM manually on pg_attribute?

>
> pg_attribute
>
> 338 GB
> pg_attribute_relid_attnam_index
>
> 117 GB
> pg_attribute_relid_attnum_index
>
> 69 GB
>
>
> I think this table must have tons of dead tuples. Please suggest to me
> if we can purge any data/shrink the size of this table.
>
> REgards
> Siraj

--
Adrian Klaver
adrian(dot)klaver(at)aklaver(dot)com