Noticed over the last few days how much more space VACUUM FULL reclaims (for obvious reasons) and I am wondering if there are any solutions for a more fruitful VACUUM without the locks of FULL?
There are lots of theories which are all compatible with the minimal amount of info given here. If the space is freed from the indexes, then just reindexing (which can be done concurrently in recent versions) could reclaim the space. If it is from the table itself then something like pg_squeeze (https://github.com/cybertec-postgresql/pg_squeeze/) might help. Or you can implement your own squeezing, by using a CTE with a ctid scan to delete tuples from the end of the table and reinsert them in the front, then use regular vacuum to truncate the now-free space off the end of the table.
I would think the more fruitful VACUUM would be to prevent the bloat from occuring in the first place but without knowing the root cause I can't offer anything but platitudes there.
