Thread: PostgreSQL 9.3 - pg_stat_database - tup_returned got "too high" value

Hello, 

I've got a "problem" with stats at PostgreSQL 9.3. Problem can coupe(?) sources: 
a) I do not understand what values should tup_returned contain 
b) tup_returned contains something else than can be understood by reading official docs 
c) something is wrong with our database "server" 

According to docs (http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.3/static/monitoring-stats.html): 
tup_returned         bigint         Number of rows returned by queries in this database 

Imagine following query and result: 

pgsql=# SELECT datname, connections, queries, tup_returned FROM pg_stat_database WHERE datname = 'dbname'; 
 datname  | connections | queries | tup_returned 
----------+-------------+---------+-------------- 
 dbname |           0 |       1 |        39824 
(1 row) 

What's my problem? This (test) database isn't used by any user/script, password was set randomly and I don't even know it. Database is left untouched, tup_returned climbs quite high at rate ~ 65k per hour. btw. there's only one table with 2 rows inside. 
Same thing happens for all 9.3 instances in all databases configured in our environment. 

I'd be very glad if someone could explain to me what should I expect from tup_returned or how can I meter "rows returned from database". 

Best regards, 
Borys Gogulski

Querying pg_stat_all_tables could provide more info pointing to particular table, it could dictionary table (from pg_catalog) – not one of your users tables.

Regards,

Igor Neyman