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Topic

PostgreSQL index bloat

Growth of PostgreSQL index files beyond the size their live entries need, typically from deletes and updates that leave b-tree pages sparsely filled.

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PostgreSQL's VACUUM strands sparse b-tree pages until a REINDEX rebuilds them

In a dev.to case study, PostgreSQL's VACUUM left indexes more than six times the size of their heap because it frees only b-tree pages that empty completely. The post sizes the bloat against the default fillfactor of 90, then rebuilds one index at a time with REINDEX CONCURRENTLY.

Publishers:dev.to

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption
Insufficient
Hype gap−5
Incentives
Insufficient
Confidence60