Resent-From: POSTGRES mailing list <postman@postgres.Berkeley.EDU>
Resent-Message-Id: <199406301538.IAA18873@nobozo.CS.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: owner-postman@postgres.Berkeley.EDU
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 94 11:37:52 EDT
From: brunner@gdc.com (Paul Brunner)
Message-Id: <9406301537.AA19637@mailhost.gdc.com>
To: postgres@postgres.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Reclaiming disk space
Resent-To: postgres-redist@postgres.Berkeley.EDU
Resent-Date: Thu, 30 Jun 94 08:38:12 -0700
Resent-XMts: smtp

POSTGRES does not appear to give one an efficient way to reclaim disk space
from deleted instances, without temporarily denying access to the database,
unloading data, destroying and recreating classes, and then reloading the
data. If a significant number of deletions occur, even with running the
vacuum command, the disk files for the classes will never shrink but only grow
in size as time goes by. It appears from the documentation and tests that
space for deleted instances becomes dead space in the files, never used again.

I am interested in hearing how users of POSTGRES deal with this issue. 
Is there an easier or less time consuming way to reclaim the disk space
from deleted instances?
How do users deal with the fact that without doing something like unloading/
reloading data destroying/recreating classes, files will only ever increase
in size?

==============================================================================
   To add/remove yourself to/from the POSTGRES mailing list: send mail with 
   the subject line ADD or DEL to "postgres-request@postgres.Berkeley.EDU"

   If this fails, send mail to "post_questions@postgres.Berkeley.EDU" and
   a human will deal with it.  DO NOT post to the "postgres" mailing list.
==============================================================================