Re: autovacuum not freeing up unused space on 8.3.0

>> Process 2:
>>  - running ANALYZE VERBOSE and pg_total_relation_size every second
>>
>
>
>> The result is that autovacuum appears to be canceled.
>>
>
> Yes, that will pretty much guarantee that an autovacuum is never able to
> complete...
>
>
That's what I figured. Since I won't be running ANALYZE under normal
circumstances this should all work fine...
>> What concerns me is that once the size has grown, even a VACUUM FULL
>> doesn't recover the space. Regular external VACUUMs keep the table at
>> around 10MB but if I use autovacuum and it grows to 40MB, a VACUUM FULL
>> will only get it down to 35MB. Is it possible that a canceled autovacuum
>> could result in permanently lost space?
>>
>
> Are you measuring index as well as table size?  VACUUM FULL is no good
> at compacting indexes.
>
>
I am measuring pg_total_relation_size which I believe includes indexes.
How does one go about compacting indexes if a VACUUM doesn't do the
trick? I see that a recommendation is to drop and recreate the indexes.
If one has a system running 24-7, then this might not be feasible.

Thanks
 Stuart