Josh Berkus <josh@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes: >>> "There were 33076 unused item pointers." >>> Is this a count of dead index pointers, or something else? >> >> No, it's currently-unused item pointers (a/k/a line pointers) on heap >> pages. See http://developer.postgresql.org/docs/postgres/page.html > So this would be a count of pointers whose items had already been moved? Either deleted, or moved to another page during VACUUM FULL compaction. Such a pointer can be recycled to point to a new item, if there's room to put another item on its page ... but if not, the pointer is wasted space. I don't believe we ever try to physically eliminate unused item pointers. regards, tom lane
