Re: BUG #4513: VACUUM FULL fails with "out of memory" error

Gregory Stark <stark(at)enterprisedb(dot)com> writes:
> "Alexey Bashtanov" <bashtanov(at)imap(dot)cc> writes:
>> TopTransactionContext: 2986336304 total in 367 blocks; 192312 free (1088
>> chunks); 2986143992 used

> It does look like you have a memory leak in VACUUM FULL.

No, I think he's trying to fix a table that hasn't been vacuumed in ages
(154GB for only half a million not-wide rows!?), and VACUUM FULL is
running out of space to remember all the pages it needs to clean up.

CLUSTER or a rewriting ALTER TABLE would likely be a better way to clean
up the mess.

(Given that this is 8.3, it might be worth inquiring into how come
autovacuum failed to keep the bloat under control.)

regards, tom lane