Tino Schwarze wrote:
> I remember several people (including myself) who used VACUUM FULL as a
> last resort when their database was bloated and they run out of disk
> space. But this seems to be moot, anyway, so it's probably better not to
> offer something that might or might not work in such a situation (and
> takes loooong) but tell them straight: "You need lots of disk space or
> you need to dump/drop/restore your database".
I guess this was an easier mistake to make back when autovacuum was
newer or inexistant. Nowadays, you install a 8.3 cluster, you already
got some protection. And in 8.4 with the dead space map it will be even
more difficult.
Not saying it'll be impossible to get in that situation, but should be
rare enough that we can suggest other workarounds when need arises.
--
Alvaro Herrera http://www.CommandPrompt.com/
The PostgreSQL Company - Command Prompt, Inc.