Re: Need help - Regarding Data Compression in PostgreSQL.

On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 6:52 AM, salma <salma.khanam@applabs.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'd like to know:
> 1. If it is possible to compress data in the PostgreSQL.

Ayup.  Anything over a standard size gets compressed out of line into
TOAST tables.

> 2. What kind of compression, if any, is available in PostgreSQL.

Standard unix compress I believe

> 3. If compression is available, what kind of disk space savings can I expect
> using it.

depends on how compressible your data is.  The compression that's
built into pgsql is focused on speed, not compression.  So don't
expect 99% compression or anything.  But on highly compressible data
you can expect it to compress quite well.  Do an experiment with du
and see what you get.

A lot of this info is probably in the docs somewhere, but I'm not sure
it's a faq or not.