Thread: can't shrink relation

can't shrink relation

From
"Sabin Coanda"
Date:
Hi there,

I have a database with lowest possible activity. I run VACUUM FULL AND I get
the following log result:



Re: can't shrink relation

From
"Sabin Coanda"
Date:
sorry for the previous incomplete post. I continue with the log:

NOTICE:  relation "pg_shdepend" TID 11/1: DeleteTransactionInProgress
2657075 --- can't shrink relation
NOTICE:  relation "pg_shdepend" TID 11/2: DeleteTransactionInProgress
2657075 --- can't shrink relation
.....
NOTICE:  relation "pg_shdepend" TID 36/93: DeleteTransactionInProgress
2658105 --- can't shrink relation


What happen ? What I have to do ?

I notice that I don't get such messages when I run just VACUUM without FULL
option.

TIA,
Sabin



Re: can't shrink relation

From
Richard Huxton
Date:
Sabin Coanda wrote:
> sorry for the previous incomplete post. I continue with the log:

Not really a performance question, this. Perhaps general/admin lists
would be better next time. No matter...

> NOTICE:  relation "pg_shdepend" TID 11/1: DeleteTransactionInProgress
> 2657075 --- can't shrink relation
> NOTICE:  relation "pg_shdepend" TID 11/2: DeleteTransactionInProgress
> 2657075 --- can't shrink relation
> .....
> NOTICE:  relation "pg_shdepend" TID 36/93: DeleteTransactionInProgress
> 2658105 --- can't shrink relation
>
> What happen ? What I have to do ?

This is where having a copy of the source pays off. cd to the top-level
of your source and type:
   find . -type f | xargs grep 'shrink relation'
Amongst the translation files you'll see .../backend/commands/vacuum.c

A quick search in there reveals...

case HEAPTUPLE_DELETE_IN_PROGRESS:
  /*
   * This should not happen, since we hold exclusive lock on
   * the relation; shouldn't we raise an error? (Actually,
   * it can happen in system catalogs, since we tend to
   * release write lock before commit there.)
   */
ereport(NOTICE,
   (errmsg("relation \"%s\" TID %u/%u: DeleteTransactionInProgress %u
--- can't shrink relation",
relname, blkno, offnum, HeapTupleHeaderGetXmax(tuple.t_data))));
do_shrinking = false;

So - it's wants to shrink a table but there is a delete in progress so
it can't do so safely. This shouldn't happen unless it's a system table,
and checking your error message, we're looking at pg_shdepend which is
indeed a system table.

> I notice that I don't get such messages when I run just VACUUM without FULL
> option.

That's because VACUUM doesn't reclaim space, it just marks blocks as
available for re-use. If you insert 2 million rows and then delete 1
million, your table will have 1 million gaps. A vacuum will try and
track those gaps (see your "free space map" settings in postgresql.conf)
whereas a vacuum-full will actually move rows around and then shrink the
size of the file on-disk once all the gaps are together at the end of
the file.

A vacuum full needs to lock the table, since it's moving rows around.

HTH

--
   Richard Huxton
   Archonet Ltd

Re: can't shrink relation

From
Guillaume Cottenceau
Date:
"Sabin Coanda" <sabin.coanda 'at' deuromedia.ro> writes:

> sorry for the previous incomplete post. I continue with the log:
>
> NOTICE:  relation "pg_shdepend" TID 11/1: DeleteTransactionInProgress
> 2657075 --- can't shrink relation
> NOTICE:  relation "pg_shdepend" TID 11/2: DeleteTransactionInProgress
> 2657075 --- can't shrink relation
> .....
> NOTICE:  relation "pg_shdepend" TID 36/93: DeleteTransactionInProgress
> 2658105 --- can't shrink relation
>
>
> What happen ? What I have to do ?

You have to use google. First match to "postgresql can't shrink
relation" (almost) returns:

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-novice/2002-12/msg00126.php

--
Guillaume Cottenceau, MNC Mobile News Channel SA, an Alcatel-Lucent Company
Av. de la Gare 10, 1003 Lausanne, Switzerland - direct +41 21 317 50 36