Message-ID: <4C9269AF.8070002@lelarge.info>
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 21:02:07 +0200
From: Guillaume Lelarge <guillaume@lelarge.info>
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To: Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com>
CC: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Where does data in pg_stat_user_tables come from?
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Le 16/09/2010 20:39, Josh Berkus a écrit :
> 
>> It's been pure nonsense in this thread.  Please show an example of
>> what's not working.
> 
> 1) Init a postgresql 8.3 with autovacuum disabled.
> 
> 2) Load a backup of a database into that PostgreSQL.
> 
> 3) Check pg_stat_user_tables.  n_live_tup for all tables will be 0.
> 
> 4) VACUUM ANALYZE the whole database.
> 
> 5) n_live_tup will *still* be 0.  Whereas reltuples in pg_class will be
> reasonable accurate.
> 

Did all your steps (except the fourth one). Works great (meaning
n_live_tup is updated as it should be).

I have to agree with Alvarro, this is complete nonsense. VACUUM ANALYZE
doesn't change the pg_stat_*_tables columns value, the stats collector does.

If your n_live_tup didn't get updated, I'm quite sure you have
track_counts to off in your postgresql.conf file.

>> Um ... it updates the last_autovacuum and last_autoanalyze columns,
>> but the others are not its responsibility.
> 
> Right. I'm contending that ANALYZE *should* update those columns.

The postgres process executing ANALYZE surely sent this information to
the stats collector (once again, if track_counts is on). Tried it
tonight, works great too.

> Current behavior is unintuitive and makes the stats in
> pg_stat_user_tables almost useless, since you can never get even
> approximately a coherent snapshot of data for all tables.
> 

Get a look at your track_count setting.


-- 
Guillaume
 http://www.postgresql.fr
 http://dalibo.com