On Fri, Oct 03, 2003 at 15:47:01 -0600,
Rob Nagler <nagler(at)bivio(dot)biz> wrote:
> > vacuum full does require exclusive lock, plain vacuum does not.
>
> I think I need full, because there are updates on the table. As I
> understand it, an update in pg is an insert/delete, so it needs
> to be garbage collected.
Plain vacuum will mark the space used by deleted tuples as reusable.
Most of the time this is good enough and you don't need to run vacuum full.