Re: doc: Clarify ANALYZE VERBOSE output

On Mon, Apr 13, 2026 at 2:28 PM Maciek Sakrejda <m(dot)sakrejda(at)gmail(dot)com>
wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 7, 2026 at 6:57 PM Shinya Kato <shinya11(dot)kato(at)gmail(dot)com>
> wrote:
> > On Mon, Apr 6, 2026, 14:17 David G. Johnston <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> How about something like:
> >> “Enables sending an INFO message to the client (and server log) as each
> table is processed. This message contains: etc…”
> >>
> >> And then let’s tell the user what info they are getting and what it
> means (where necessary).
> >>
> >> I concur being specific about when these messages arrive, and IMO
> where, should be specified. But losing the detail of “report” is not good;
> but not sure why we are being vague so suggest we just go all-in on
> specificity.
> >
> > Thank you for the suggestion. I'd prefer to keep this patch focused;
> since the verbose output of both commands is subject to change, listing
> every individual field in the documentation would require frequent updates.
> >
> > I believe the current "Outputs" section is intentionally kept simple to
> minimize maintenance overhead. While expanding it might be a worthwhile
> follow-up, it probably deserves its own dedicated discussion.
>
> +1, listing output details is signing up for busywork.

Given how expansive and thorough our documentation is, and the fact this is
user-facing output, I'm not seeing why this gets a pass on the
documentation requirement. That said, I concur this patch needn't be
responsible for dealing with that - I'm not even sure whether trying to do
that on the vacuum/analyze pages is even the correct choice since at least
some of what is output is object-specific and not generic to vacuum
itself. Though stuff like timings are. Even if we want to leave ourselves
the "it's undocumented so it can be changed at will" clause we can simply
write that in.

maybe something
> along these lines:
>
> "Prints detailed stats at <literal>INFO</literal> level for each table
> as it is processed."
>
>
I really don't like the word "Print" here. What the client decides to do
with the INFO message is up to them - the interface to document for the
server is simply sending the message and its details.

I was apparently mistaken about this info showing in the server log file
though.

So that leaves me with suggesting:

"Enables the sending of a detailed INFO message to the client after each
table is processed."

David J.