Subject: Re: vacuum and routine maintenance docs
From: Scott Marlowe <smarlowe@g2switchworks.com>
To: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Cc: pgsql-docs@postgresql.org
In-Reply-To: <200603022142.k22Lg7L12590@candle.pha.pa.us>
References: <200603022142.k22Lg7L12590@candle.pha.pa.us>
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Message-Id: <1142267356.6249.191.camel@state.g2switchworks.com>
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Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:29:16 -0600

Sorry for the long delay.  1:  We've been busy as a one legged man in a
butt kicking contest at work and 2:  My laptop, which I use for all this
kind of stuff, died and I just got it back a week ago.  I will work on
it this week, promise.

On Thu, 2006-03-02 at 15:42, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> Any update on this effort?
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Scott Marlowe wrote:
> > 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?
> > 
> > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> > TIP 9: In versions below 8.0, the planner will ignore your desire to
> >        choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not
> >        match
> >