VACUUM(7)							   SQL Commands 							 VACUUM(7)

NAME

       VACUUM - garbage-collect and optionally analyze a database

SYNOPSIS

       VACUUM [ FULL ] [ FREEZE ] [ VERBOSE ] [ table ]
       VACUUM [ FULL ] [ FREEZE ] [ VERBOSE ] ANALYZE [ table [ (column [, ...] ) ] ]

DESCRIPTION

       VACUUM reclaims storage occupied by dead tuples.  In normal PostgreSQL operation, tuples that are deleted or obsoleted by an update are not
       physically removed from their table; they remain present until a VACUUM is done. Therefore it's necessary to do VACUUM periodically,  espe-
       cially on frequently-updated tables.

       With  no parameter, VACUUM processes every table in the current database that the current user has permission to vacuum.  With a parameter,
       VACUUM processes only that table.

       VACUUM ANALYZE performs a VACUUM and then an ANALYZE for each selected table. This is a handy  combination  form  for  routine  maintenance
       scripts. See ANALYZE [analyze(7)] for more details about its processing.

       Plain  VACUUM (without FULL) simply reclaims space and makes it available for re-use. This form of the command can operate in parallel with
       normal reading and writing of the table, as an exclusive lock is not obtained. VACUUM FULL does more extensive processing, including moving
       of  tuples  across blocks to try to compact the table to the minimum number of disk blocks. This form is much slower and requires an exclu-
       sive lock on each table while it is being processed.

PARAMETERS

       FULL   Selects ``full'' vacuum, which can reclaim more space, but takes much longer and exclusively locks the table.

       FREEZE Selects aggressive ``freezing'' of tuples.  Specifying FREEZE is equivalent to  performing  VACUUM  with	the  vacuum_freeze_min_age
	      parameter set to zero. The FREEZE option is deprecated and will be removed in a future release; set the parameter instead.

       VERBOSE
	      Prints a detailed vacuum activity report for each table.

       ANALYZE
	      Updates statistics used by the planner to determine the most efficient way to execute a query.

       table  The name (optionally schema-qualified) of a specific table to vacuum. Defaults to all tables in the current database.

       column The name of a specific column to analyze. Defaults to all columns.

OUTPUTS

       When  VERBOSE  is  specified, VACUUM emits progress messages to indicate which table is currently being processed. Various statistics about
       the tables are printed as well.

NOTES

       To vacuum a table, one must ordinarily be the table's owner or a superuser. However, database owners are allowed to vacuum  all	tables	in
       their databases, except shared catalogs.  (The restriction for shared catalogs means that a true database-wide VACUUM can only be performed
       by a superuser.)  VACUUM will skip over any tables that the calling user does not have permission to vacuum.

       VACUUM cannot be executed inside a transaction block.

       For tables with GIN indexes, VACUUM (in any form) also completes any pending index insertions, by  moving  pending  index  entries  to  the
       appropriate places in the main GIN index structure. See in the documentation for details.

       We  recommend  that  active  production	databases be vacuumed frequently (at least nightly), in order to remove dead rows. After adding or
       deleting a large number of rows, it might be a good idea to issue a VACUUM ANALYZE command for the affected table.  This  will  update  the
       system catalogs with the results of all recent changes, and allow the PostgreSQL query planner to make better choices in planning queries.

       The  FULL  option  is not recommended for routine use, but might be useful in special cases. An example is when you have deleted or updated
       most of the rows in a table and would like the table to physically shrink to occupy less disk space and allow faster  table  scans.  VACUUM
       FULL  will  usually  shrink  the table more than a plain VACUUM would. The FULL option does not shrink indexes; a periodic REINDEX is still
       recommended. In fact, it is often faster to drop all indexes, VACUUM FULL, and recreate the indexes.

       VACUUM causes a substantial increase in I/O traffic, which might cause poor performance for other active sessions. Therefore, it  is  some-
       times advisable to use the cost-based vacuum delay feature.  See in the documentation for details.

       PostgreSQL includes an ``autovacuum'' facility which can automate routine vacuum maintenance. For more information about automatic and man-
       ual vacuuming, see in the documentation.

EXAMPLES

       The following is an example from running VACUUM on a table in the regression database:

       regression=# VACUUM VERBOSE ANALYZE onek;
       INFO:  vacuuming "public.onek"
       INFO:  index "onek_unique1" now contains 1000 tuples in 14 pages
       DETAIL:	3000 index tuples were removed.
       0 index pages have been deleted, 0 are currently reusable.
       CPU 0.01s/0.08u sec elapsed 0.18 sec.
       INFO:  index "onek_unique2" now contains 1000 tuples in 16 pages
       DETAIL:	3000 index tuples were removed.
       0 index pages have been deleted, 0 are currently reusable.
       CPU 0.00s/0.07u sec elapsed 0.23 sec.
       INFO:  index "onek_hundred" now contains 1000 tuples in 13 pages
       DETAIL:	3000 index tuples were removed.
       0 index pages have been deleted, 0 are currently reusable.
       CPU 0.01s/0.08u sec elapsed 0.17 sec.
       INFO:  index "onek_stringu1" now contains 1000 tuples in 48 pages
       DETAIL:	3000 index tuples were removed.
       0 index pages have been deleted, 0 are currently reusable.
       CPU 0.01s/0.09u sec elapsed 0.59 sec.
       INFO:  "onek": removed 3000 tuples in 108 pages
       DETAIL:	CPU 0.01s/0.06u sec elapsed 0.07 sec.
       INFO:  "onek": found 3000 removable, 1000 nonremovable tuples in 143 pages
       DETAIL:	0 dead tuples cannot be removed yet.
       There were 0 unused item pointers.
       0 pages are entirely empty.
       CPU 0.07s/0.39u sec elapsed 1.56 sec.
       INFO:  analyzing "public.onek"
       INFO:  "onek": 36 pages, 1000 rows sampled, 1000 estimated total rows
       VACUUM

COMPATIBILITY

       There is no VACUUM statement in the SQL standard.

SEE ALSO

       vacuumdb [vacuumdb(1)], in the documentation, in the documentation

SQL - Language Statements					    2010-05-14								 VACUUM(7)