"Consider compacting this relation..." ??? - Mailing list pgsql-general

From Kynn Jones
Subject "Consider compacting this relation..." ???
Date
Msg-id c2350ba40802281314l32a305e7if22f7c9fa6eb105b@mail.gmail.com
Whole thread Raw
Responses Re: "Consider compacting this relation..." ???
List pgsql-general
I just ran VACUUM ANALYZE and got this warning I've never seen before:

WARNING:  relation "public.some_big_table" contains more than "max_fsm_pages" pages with useful free space
HINT:  Consider compacting this relation or increasing the configuration parameter "max_fsm_pages".

What does the hint mean by "compacting"?  What exactly must I do to compact this table?

Also, at the end of the VACUUM ANALYZE run I get the NOTICE:

NOTICE:  number of page slots needed (294528) exceeds max_fsm_pages (153600)
HINT:  Consider increasing the configuration parameter "max_fsm_pages" to a value over 294528.

What surprises me here is that even though I've never seen this notice before (and I've been running VACUUM ANALYZE a lot lately!), the number of page slots needed is almost twice as much as the value of max_fsm_pages.  What could I have done since the last time I ran VACUUM ANALYZE (not more than 24 hours ago) to make this "page slot" requirement to shoot through the roof like this?

Thanks in advance!

kynn

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