Explain how vacuum_freeze_table_age should be tuned, and how it relates
to the other settings. Mention that vacuum_freeze_table_age also affects
when autovacuum scans the whole table.
per-table overrides of parameters.
This removes a whole class of problems related to misusing the catalog,
and perhaps more importantly, gives us pg_dump support for the parameters.
Based on a patch by Euler Taveira de Oliveira, heavily reworked by me.
vacuuming (it's not), say "database-wide VACUUM" instead of "full-database
VACUUM" in the relevant hint messages. Also, document the permissions needed
to do this. Per today's discussion.
* stats_start_collector goes away; we always start the collector process,
unless prevented by a problem with setting up the stats UDP socket.
* stats_reset_on_server_start goes away; it seems useless in view of the
availability of pg_stat_reset().
* stats_block_level and stats_row_level are merged into a single variable
"track_counts", which controls all reports sent to the collector process.
* stats_command_string is renamed to track_activities.
* log_autovacuum is renamed to log_autovacuum_min_duration to better reflect
its meaning.
The log_autovacuum change is not a compatibility issue since it didn't exist
before 8.3 anyway. The other changes need to be release-noted.
processes to be running simultaneously. Also, now autovacuum processes do not
count towards the max_connections limit; they are counted separately from
regular processes, and are limited by the new GUC variable
autovacuum_max_workers.
The launcher now has intelligence to launch workers on each database every
autovacuum_naptime seconds, limited only on the max amount of worker slots
available.
Also, the global worker I/O utilization is limited by the vacuum cost-based
delay feature. Workers are "balanced" so that the total I/O consumption does
not exceed the established limit. This part of the patch was contributed by
ITAGAKI Takahiro.
Per discussion.
Standard English uses "may", "can", and "might" in different ways:
may - permission, "You may borrow my rake."
can - ability, "I can lift that log."
might - possibility, "It might rain today."
Unfortunately, in conversational English, their use is often mixed, as
in, "You may use this variable to do X", when in fact, "can" is a better
choice. Similarly, "It may crash" is better stated, "It might crash".
Standard English uses "may", "can", and "might" in different ways:
may - permission, "You may borrow my rake."
can - ability, "I can lift that log."
might - possibility, "It might rain today."
Unfortunately, in conversational English, their use is often mixed, as
in, "You may use this variable to do X", when in fact, "can" is a better
choice. Similarly, "It may crash" is better stated, "It might crash".
Also update two error messages mentioned in the documenation to match.
in PITR scenarios. We now WAL-log the replacement of old XIDs with
FrozenTransactionId, so that such replacement is guaranteed to propagate to
PITR slave databases. Also, rather than relying on hint-bit updates to be
preserved, pg_clog is not truncated until all instances of an XID are known to
have been replaced by FrozenTransactionId. Add new GUC variables and
pg_autovacuum columns to allow management of the freezing policy, so that
users can trade off the size of pg_clog against the amount of freezing work
done. Revise the already-existing code that forces autovacuum of tables
approaching the wraparound point to make it more bulletproof; also, revise the
autovacuum logic so that anti-wraparound vacuuming is done per-table rather
than per-database. initdb forced because of changes in pg_class, pg_database,
and pg_autovacuum catalogs. Heikki Linnakangas, Simon Riggs, and Tom Lane.
compatibility for release 7.2 and earlier. I have not altered any
mentions of release 7.3 or later. The release notes were not modified,
so the changes are still documented, just not in the main docs.
in the database. The old behavior (reindex system catalogs only) is now
available as REINDEX SYSTEM. I did not add the complementary REINDEX USER
case since there did not seem to be consensus for this, but it would be
trivial to add later. Per recent discussions.
Heikki Linnakangas
Bruce Momjian
Alvaro Herrera
Tom Lane
Magnus Hagander
Peter Eisentraut
Andrew Dunstan
Neil Conway