Re: auto vacuum, not working?

Mario Weilguni  wrote:
 
>> yesterday I delete about 200 million rows of a table
 
>> How can I release the space used by deleted rows?
>> Without block the table.
 
> vacuum does not reclaim space, just marks tuples dead. You need
> vacuum full.
 
VACUUM FULL will lock the table, blocking all other access, and it
can run for quite a while.  If you expect to be adding 200 million
new rows to the table in the foreseeable future, a regular VACUUM
(or autovacuum) will make that space available for reuse by that
table.  The space won't show in the file system; it will still be
allocated to the database but available for new rows.
 
-Kevin