Trouble-free vacuum w/concurrent writes? (was "PostgreSQL capabilities")

Bruce Momjian wrote:
>
> > Alex Pilosov wrote:
> > >
> > > > http://networkdna.com/database/index.html mentions that PostgreSQL is
> > > > capable of "Online backup". What does that exactly mean?
> > >
> > > It means Postgres can do a reliable backup (a consistent snapshot) of a
> > > database without shutting down the database.
> >
> > Hmmm.  My backup procedure, based on earlier discussions in this group,
> > involves blocking all write-access during a pg_dump.  That is effectively
> > shutting down the database from my perspective.  Is there a quicker way
> > to take a consistent snapshot while still allowing writes?
>
> With 6.5 and 7.0, pg_dump grabs a consistent snapshot of the database at
> the time it starts, and dumps that.  No reason to shut out users.

Can other folks confirm that this is no longer a problem?  Are people
successfully vacuuming while allowing full read/write access to the db?

Regards,
Ed Loehr