Hi all,

For most beginners (and even a lot of advanced users)  there is a strong
confusion between simple VACUUM and VACUUM FULL. They think "full" is
simply an option to the maintenance operation vacuum while it's not. It's a
complete different  operation.

I have a hard time explaining it when I teach PostgreSQL Administration
(even if I stress the matter) and I constantly meet customer that are wrong
about it.

I think that the way we name this two operations is not helping them. I had
to work with SQL Server some years ago and they use the word "SHRINK" to do
something similar to "VACUUM FULL". I don't know if it's the best option, I
think others can be found (COMPACT, DEFRAGMENT...)

Of course, for compatibility reasons, VACUUM FULL should always be
available, but I think an alias that is less confusing for people could be
a good thing.

What do you think ?

Cheers,

Lætitia

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