>
> Would it not be faster to do a dump/reload of the table than reindex
or
> is it about the same?
>
reindex is probably faster, but that's not the point. you can reindex a
running system whereas dump/restore requires downtime unless you work
everything into a transaction, which is headache, and dangerous.
reindex locking is very granular, in that it only acquires a excl. lock
on one index at a time and while doing so reading is possible (writes
will wait).
in 8.1 we get a fire and forget reindex database xyz which is about as
good as it gets without a dump/load or full vacuum.
Merlin