I often hear complaints about the vacuum process in #PostgreSQL, mostly about how it impacts performance. There seems to be a lack of understanding about how vacuum works and the benefits it has.
Have you encountered such situations? How do you think this should be addressed?
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Most VACUUM problems are performance *stability* problems IME. It is a little like LSM compaction in RocksDB. So I agree; general understanding is important. At the same time, VACUUM *can* be made much more predictable, purely trough non-invasive enhancements.
Yes, vacuum isn't a feature, it supports a feature. Most engines with MVCC have something like it (InnoDB purge, LSM compaction). But in my days with InnoDB I rarely worried about purge. Hopefully vacuum reaches that point. No dbms is perfect.
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... I still worry about RocksDB compaction. Interesting work remains. Imperfect database engines are fun to work on.
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