I wrote:
>> Is there any point in vacuuming?
> The only thing a vacuum would do for you there is set the commit hint
> bits on the newly-inserted rows. Which might be worth doing if you want
> to get the table into a totally "clean" state, but it's probably a bit
> excessive. SELECTs on the table will set the hint bits anyway as
> they visit not-yet-hinted rows, so it's really a matter of do you want
> to pay that overhead all at once or spread-out.
I forgot to mention that any other operation that examines every table
row will fix all the hint bits as well. In particular a CREATE INDEX
would do that --- so if you are planning to create some indexes then
there's certainly no point in a VACUUM just after a table load.
regards, tom lane