Subject: vacuum and routine maintenance docs
From: Scott Marlowe <smarlowe@g2switchworks.com>
To: pgsql-docs@postgresql.org
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-Id: <1137518049.25500.27.camel@state.g2switchworks.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 11:14:09 -0600

After the most recent post on the general mailing list by someone who
was a bit confused by postgresql's vacuuming and use of the free space
map, I've been reviewing the page on routine maintenance.

It's pretty obvious that this page was originally written for an older
version of PostgreSQL and has had bits and pieces welded onto it over
time to cover newer features, like the autovacuum daemon.

I'd like to rewrite most of the page, or at least the parts referring to
vacuuming and analyzing.  They seem a bit scattered about on the page,
and there's no mention at all of the free space map, something which is
integral to vacuuming the database.

So, before I go of slogging through the snow, a couple of questions.

1:  Is there already a newer version in CVS?  Should I check out the
docs/src directory from there to start?   Or can I just go on what's in
the 8.1 release?

2:  Any input on anyone as to what they feel they'd like to see in the
docs for this section?  

The section on vacuuming and analysis seem kind of light on theory.  I'm
thinking we should mention something about the default statistics or at
least a reference to a page that explains it.

This also leads me to believe that what we cover on the
runtime-config-resource page, because the coverage of the fsm there is
kind of light too.

So, any advice?