I've found some strange behavoiur of TOAST'able tables. 1. Lets create table with toastable column
CREATE table toastable ( x int , y text ); 2. Check toast size - as the table is empty it's size 0 - OK SELECT relname, pg_relation_size(oid) FROM pg_class where oid=(select reltoastrelid from pg_class where relkind = 'r' and relname = 'toastable'); 3. Insert some large record into toastable INSERT into toastable values (1, pg_read_file('r.txt', 0, 100000)); 4. Again check toast size - it's > 0 now - and it's OK as there are some data SELECT relname, pg_relation_size(oid) FROM pg_class where oid=(select reltoastrelid from pg_class where relkind = 'r' and relname = 'toastable'); 5. Drop the only toastable column ALTER TABLE toastable DROP COLUMN y; 6. To be sure - vacuum VACUUM FULL; 7. Check toast size. OH NO - IT"S THE SAME AS IN POINT 4 - WHERE IS MY STORAGE?? SELECT relname, pg_relation_size(oid) FROM pg_class where oid=(select reltoastrelid from pg_class where relkind = 'r' and relname = 'toastable'); 8. Make some MVCC noise. UPDATE toastable SET x=x; 9. And vacuum VACUUM FULL; 10. Here it is - my storage is back (toast size 0) SELECT relname, pg_relation_size(oid) FROM pg_class where oid=(select reltoastrelid from pg_class where relkind = 'r' and relname = 'toastable'); In my opinion the fact that dropping column doesn't release it's toastable resources is a bug. I think it would be good if the toast table would be deleted also in such a case (now I have table with no toastable columns so I don't need it anymore), but that's not so important as releasing the free space. Best regards Wojtek Strzalka -- Sent via pgsql-bugs mailing list (pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-bugs