> I think that the problems I am seeing are due to using a much
> older version of PostgreSQL. We use 7.1.3 here, because we
> have thoroughly tested it (many thousands of tests are in our
> regression suite). But if I delete too many records, the
> only way I can reclaim the space is to drop the table.
Maybe this problem is related to indexes. Vacuuming does not work on
indexes, so from time to time you have to issue a REINDEX on tables that
have lots of deletions. This is problem is supposed to be going away soon,
or mostly so... I think 7.4 contained an improvement here.
VACUUM FULL really really does reclaim all space in the heap. Try REINDEX
next time.
> We are working with the beta of 7.5 and perhaps it will cure
> all the ills that remain.