Hey, >> # autovacuum processes >> >> postgres 16508 9.2 0.1 2310836 37984 ? Ds 09:58 0:09 \_ postgres: >> autovacuum process db1 >> postgres 19626 7.2 0.0 2289524 27704 ? Ds 10:09 0:03 \_ postgres: >> autovacuum process db1 >> postgres 20861 7.8 0.0 2298844 31028 ? Ds 10:13 0:08 \_ postgres: >> autovacuum process db1 >> postgres 21673 6.1 0.1 2336904 33400 ? Ds 10:16 0:12 \_ postgres: >> autovacuum process db1 >> postgres 21673 6.2 0.1 2339840 57400 ? Ds 10:16 0:31 \_ postgres: >> autovacuum process db1 >> postgres 13597 11.6 0.0 2358352 29936 ? Ds 17:12 0:20 \_ postgres: >> autovacuum process db2 >> postgres 13597 8.7 0.1 2358352 39056 ? Ds 17:12 0:41 \_ postgres: >> autovacuum process db2 >> postgres 13597 7.8 0.1 2363924 45540 ? Ds 17:12 1:01 \_ postgres: >> autovacuum process db2 > > Something is seriously wrong here -- there should be only one autovacuum > process ever in 8.2. Can you show a more complete ps tree, and perhaps > include PPID in the listing? My bad - I messed up the above. I grepped for autovacuum in my process logs and included all matches. There is only one autovacuum process when it starts up. Below is the correct output from one of the logs postgres 8951 0.0 0.1 2270284 60484 pts/0 S Jun29 0:36 /usr/local/postgres/pgsql-8.2.3/bin/postgres -D /usr/local/postgres/current/data -i postgres 8989 4.9 0.0 57496 948 ? Ss Jun29 282:33 \_ postgres: logger process postgres 9002 0.0 6.4 2271532 2126852 ? Ss Jun29 2:13 \_ postgres: writer process postgres 9003 0.0 0.0 58564 1024 ? Ss Jun29 0:01 \_ postgres: archiver process postgres 9004 0.0 0.0 58448 832 ? Ss Jun29 0:00 \_ postgres: stats collector process postgres 871 0.0 0.1 2274216 36200 ? Ss Jul02 0:00 \_ postgres: postgres dbname [local] idle postgres 16508 9.2 0.1 2310836 37984 ? Ds 09:58 0:09 \_ postgres: autovacuum process dbname Thanks Dushyanth