Re: [HACKERS] vacuum analyze

Michael Simms <grim@argh.demon.co.uk> writes:
> ahem, well, to be honest, Ive never found any documentation on how to
> read the logs *embarrassed smile*.

> template1=> select * from pg_log;
> ERROR:  pg_log cannot be accessed by users

No, no, not pg_log.  I'm talking about the text file that you've
directed the postmaster's stdout and stderr into.  (You are doing that
and not dropping it on the floor, I trust.)

> It COULD be a problem with that, as I have a crontab process that vacuums
> everything every 24 hours, but also I perform some minor vacuums in the
> meantime, some of which may occur when the main vacuum is happening.

pg_vlock exists specifically to prevent two concurrent vacuums.  The
scenario I was talking about involved removing it by hand, which you
wouldn't do unless you were trying to provoke a vacuum error (or,
perhaps, cleaning up after a previous vacuum run coredumped).
        regards, tom lane