Re: Vacuuming

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 7:32 PM,  <peter@vfemail.net> wrote:
>
> There's a script running on my server hosting a PostgreSQL database that does some type of vacuuming routine every
Fridayat 5:00 p.m.  Specifically, the script executes this command: 
>
>     psql -d database_name -c "vacuum full verbose"
>
> and e-mails the verbose output to me.  Today's report today contains about 900,000 characters.
>
> I don't event know where to begin reading that report, interpreting what it's telling me, determining what's
important,or ascertaining what's routing and unimportant. 
>
> Can anybody give me any guidance or point me to a document that I should read to understand what the PostgreSQL
vacuumdoes and why this is an important function and how to decipher the verbose output? 
>

You should never run VACUUM FULL on a regular basis. In fact, it's
recommended never to use FULL.
See: http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/VACUUM_FULL