Stuart Brooks <stuartb@cat.co.za> writes:
> Process 2:
> - running ANALYZE VERBOSE and pg_total_relation_size every second
> The result is that autovacuum appears to be canceled.
Yes, that will pretty much guarantee that an autovacuum is never able to
complete...
> What concerns me is that once the size has grown, even a VACUUM FULL
> doesn't recover the space. Regular external VACUUMs keep the table at
> around 10MB but if I use autovacuum and it grows to 40MB, a VACUUM FULL
> will only get it down to 35MB. Is it possible that a canceled autovacuum
> could result in permanently lost space?
Are you measuring index as well as table size? VACUUM FULL is no good
at compacting indexes.
regards, tom lane