"Tom Bakken" <tom(dot)bakken(at)tx(dot)usda(dot)gov> writes:
> I'm not finding any mention of CHECKPOINT in my references. Is that
> something from a version newer than 7.1.2?
You're running 7.1.2? My, that *is* an old installation. You really
ought to think about an update, particularly if you might be approaching
the 4-billion-transaction event horizon. You do not want to suffer XID
wraparound in a 7.1 installation :-(. See this link for explanations:
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.4/static/maintenance.html#VACUUM-FOR-WRAPAROUND
7.1 does have the CHECKPOINT command, though, whether you see it
documented or not.
regards, tom lane