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Message-ID: <ba80fa8c-4038-463c-b134-d7e7b46601c4@aklaver.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2025 10:17:10 -0700
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Subject: Re: size of attributes table is too big
To: Siraj G <tosiraj.g@gmail.com>, pgsql-general@lists.postgresql.org
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From: Adrian Klaver <adrian.klaver@aklaver.com>
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On 3/19/25 10:06, Siraj G wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> I have a PG (v16) instance which is occupying around 1TB of storage. Out 

Exact version of Postgres 16, include the x in 16.x.

> of this, around 350GB is occupied by the table pg_catalog.pg_attribute.
> Why is the catalog table's size so big?
> 
> Here are the sizes:

How did you measure the sizes?

pg_attribute maintains information about table columns, how many table 
columns do you have?

Are you creating/dropping tables on a regular basis?

Is autovacuum running properly?

Have you run VACUUM manually on pg_attribute?

> 
> pg_attribute
> 	
> 338 GB
> pg_attribute_relid_attnam_index
> 	
> 117 GB
> pg_attribute_relid_attnum_index
> 	
> 69 GB
> 
> 
> I think this table must have tons of dead tuples. Please suggest to me 
> if we can purge any data/shrink the size of this table.
> 
> REgards
> Siraj

-- 
Adrian Klaver
adrian.klaver@aklaver.com