Re: doc: Clarify ANALYZE VERBOSE output - Mailing list pgsql-docs

From David G. Johnston
Subject Re: doc: Clarify ANALYZE VERBOSE output
Date
Msg-id CAKFQuwYHBDNe0nyASfUCaw+s1rO+=yKTBd24yUf6nF6a1gRALw@mail.gmail.com
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In response to Re: doc: Clarify ANALYZE VERBOSE output  (Maciek Sakrejda <m.sakrejda@gmail.com>)
Responses Re: doc: Clarify ANALYZE VERBOSE output
Re: doc: Clarify ANALYZE VERBOSE output
List pgsql-docs
On Mon, Apr 13, 2026 at 2:28 PM Maciek Sakrejda <m.sakrejda@gmail.com> wrote:
On Tue, Apr 7, 2026 at 6:57 PM Shinya Kato <shinya11.kato@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 6, 2026, 14:17 David G. Johnston <david.g.johnston@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> How about something like:
>> “Enables sending an INFO message to the client (and server log) as each table is processed.  This message contains: etc…”
>>
>> And then let’s tell the user what info they are getting and what it means (where necessary).
>>
>> I concur being specific about when these messages arrive, and IMO where, should be specified.  But losing the detail of “report” is not good; but not sure why we are being vague so suggest we just go all-in on specificity.
>
> Thank you for the suggestion. I'd prefer to keep this patch focused; since the verbose output of both commands is subject to change, listing every individual field in the documentation would require frequent updates.
>
> I believe the current "Outputs" section is intentionally kept simple to minimize maintenance overhead. While expanding it might be a worthwhile follow-up, it probably deserves its own dedicated discussion.

+1, listing output details is signing up for busywork.

Given how expansive and thorough our documentation is, and the fact this is user-facing output, I'm not seeing why this gets a pass on the documentation requirement.  That said, I concur this patch needn't be responsible for dealing with that - I'm not even sure whether trying to do that on the vacuum/analyze pages is even the correct choice since at least some of what is output is object-specific and not generic to vacuum itself.  Though stuff like timings are.  Even if we want to leave ourselves the "it's undocumented so it can be changed at will" clause we can simply write that in.

maybe something
along these lines:

"Prints detailed stats at <literal>INFO</literal> level for each table
as it is processed."


I really don't like the word "Print" here.  What the client decides to do with the INFO message is up to them - the interface to document for the server is simply sending the message and its details.

I was apparently mistaken about this info showing in the server log file though.

So that leaves me with suggesting:

"Enables the sending of a detailed INFO message to the client after each table is processed."

David J.

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