Re: Database size stays constant but disk space keeps shrinking -- postgres 9.1 - Mailing list pgsql-admin

Greg Williamson <gwilliamson39@yahoo.com> writes:
>> Have you checked to see if there are any processes that have open handles to
>> deleted files (lsof -X | grep deleted).

> lsof -X | grep deleted | wc -l

> shows: 835 such files.

> A couple:
> postgres   2540 postgres   50u      REG                8,3     409600      93429
/var/lib/postgresql/9.1/main/base/2789
> 200/11816 (deleted)
> postgres   2540 postgres   51u      REG                8,3   18112512   49694570
/var/lib/postgresql/9.1/main/base/2789
> 200/2791679 (deleted)
> <...>

So, which processes are holding these open, and what are they doing
exactly?  Let's see output from ps and pg_stat_activity, maybe even
attach to them with gdb and get stack traces.

> We've a planned restart scheduled soon which will let me find any
> scripts that might be keeping things open,

A restart will destroy all the evidence, so let's not be in a hurry
to do that before we've identified what's happening.

            regards, tom lane