VACUUMDB(1)

💅 VACUUMDB(1) — the PostgreSQL 14.24 glow-up page

okay bestie so you're looking at vacuumdb, the PostgreSQL 14.24 utility that literally cleans your database's room for it. we're gonna get into it. 🧹✨

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✨ NAME ✨

vacuumdb — garbage-collect and analyze a PostgreSQL database

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

vacuumdb [connection-option...] [option...]
         [ -t | --table table [( column [,...] )] ]...  [dbname]

vacuumdb [connection-option...] [option...] -a | --all

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So vacuumdb is a utility for cleaning a PostgreSQL database. that's its whole thing. it's the friend who shows up with a trash bag and a label maker. 🗑️ and she doesn't just tidy — she also generates the internal statistics that the PostgreSQL query optimizer uses. like, she leaves you with a clean room and a fully labeled set of drawers. icon behavior.

here's the tea though: vacuumdb is just a wrapper around the SQL command VACUUM. there is no effective difference between vacuuming and analyzing databases via this utility versus via any other method for accessing the server. same vibes, different doorway. 🚪✨

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

vacuumdb accepts the following command-line arguments:

• -a, --all — Vacuum all databases. yes, all of them. main character energy for your whole cluster. 👑
• [-d] dbname, [--dbname=]dbname — Specifies the name of the database to be cleaned or analyzed, when -a/--all is not used. if you don't specify it, the database name is read from the environment variable PGDATABASE. and if that's not set either, the user name specified for the connection is used. also, plot twist: dbname can be a connection string 🦋 — and if so, connection string parameters will override any conflicting command line options.
• --disable-page-skipping — Disable skipping pages based on the contents of the visibility map. no skipping for you, pages. 🚫

💀 Note: This option is only available for servers running PostgreSQL 9.6 and later.

• -e, --echo — Echo the commands that vacuumdb generates and sends to the server. she's showing her work. 📢
• -f, --full — Perform “full” vacuuming. the deluxe version. 🔥
• -F, --freeze — Aggressively “freeze” tuples. aggressively. the quotes are theirs, the attitude is mine. 🧊
• --force-index-cleanup — Always remove index entries pointing to dead tuples. not asking, telling. 💅

💀 Note: This option is only available for servers running PostgreSQL 12 and later.

• -j njobs, --jobs=njobs — Execute the vacuum or analyze commands in parallel by running njobs commands simultaneously. this option may reduce the processing time, but it also increases the load on the database server. faster ≠ free, bestie. 😭

vacuumdb will open njobs connections to the database, so make sure your max_connections setting is high enough to accommodate all connections. fr fr go check it.

Note that using this mode together with the -f (FULL) option might cause deadlock failures if certain system catalogs are processed in parallel. so… be mindful. 💀

• --min-mxid-age mxid_age — Only execute the vacuum or analyze commands on tables with a multixact ID age of at least mxid_age. this setting is useful for prioritizing tables to process to prevent multixact ID wraparound (see Section 25.1.5.1). 🌀

For the purposes of this option, the multixact ID age of a relation is the greatest of the ages of the main relation and its associated TOAST table, if one exists. since the commands issued by vacuumdb will also process the TOAST table for the relation if necessary, it does not need to be considered separately. she already handled it. 🫶

💀 Note: This option is only available for servers running PostgreSQL 9.6 and later.

• --min-xid-age xid_age — Only execute the vacuum or analyze commands on tables with a transaction ID age of at least xid_age. this setting is useful for prioritizing tables to process to prevent transaction ID wraparound (see Section 25.1.5). 🌀

For the purposes of this option, the transaction ID age of a relation is the greatest of the ages of the main relation and its associated TOAST table, if one exists. since the commands issued by vacuumdb will also process the TOAST table for the relation if necessary, it does not need to be considered separately. same deal, same slay. 🫶

💀 Note: This option is only available for servers running PostgreSQL 9.6 and later.

• --no-index-cleanup — Do not remove index entries pointing to dead tuples. leaving them. respectfully. 🙈

💀 Note: This option is only available for servers running PostgreSQL 12 and later.

• --no-process-toast — Skip the TOAST table associated with the table to vacuum, if any. not today, TOAST. 🍞

💀 Note: This option is only available for servers running PostgreSQL 14 and later.

• --no-truncate — Do not truncate empty pages at the end of the table. leaving the empty pages exactly where they are, like unread books on a shelf. 📚

💀 Note: This option is only available for servers running PostgreSQL 12 and later.

• -P parallel_workers, --parallel=parallel_workers — Specify the number of parallel workers for parallel vacuum. this allows the vacuum to leverage multiple CPUs to process indexes. see VACUUM(7). multi-core moment. ⚡

💀 Note: This option is only available for servers running PostgreSQL 13 and later.

• -q, --quiet — Do not display progress messages. silent mode, mysterious mode. 🤫
• --skip-locked — Skip relations that cannot be immediately locked for processing. if you're busy, she moves on. no hard feelings. 💅

💀 Note: This option is only available for servers running PostgreSQL 12 and later.

• -t table [ (column [,...]) ], --table=table [ (column [,...]) ] — Clean or analyze table only. column names can be specified only in conjunction with the --analyze or --analyze-only options. multiple tables can be vacuumed by writing multiple -t switches. collect them like stickers. 🎀

🌟 Tip: If you specify columns, you probably have to escape the parentheses from the shell. (see examples below.)

• -v, --verbose — Print detailed information during processing. she's narrating. 🗣️
• -V, --version — Print the vacuumdb version and exit. 👋
• -z, --analyze — Also calculate statistics for use by the optimizer. 📊
• -Z, --analyze-only — Only calculate statistics for use by the optimizer (no vacuum). stats only, no cleaning. 📈
• --analyze-in-stages — Only calculate statistics for use by the optimizer (no vacuum), like --analyze-only. run several (currently three) stages of analyze with different configuration settings, to produce usable statistics faster. three-act structure, but make it statistics. 🎭

This option is useful to analyze a database that was newly populated from a restored dump or by pg_upgrade. this option will try to create some statistics as fast as possible, to make the database usable, and then produce full statistics in the subsequent stages. good enough now, gorgeous later. ✨

• -?, --help — Show help about vacuumdb command line arguments, and exit. 🆘

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🔌 connection parameters 🔌

vacuumdb also accepts the following command-line arguments for connection parameters:

• -h host, --host=host — Specifies the host name of the machine on which the server is running. if the value begins with a slash, it is used as the directory for the Unix domain socket. slash means socket, iykyk. 🦋
• -p port, --port=port — Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file extension on which the server is listening for connections. 🔢
• -U username, --username=username — User name to connect as. 🪪
• -w, --no-password — Never issue a password prompt. if the server requires password authentication and a password is not available by other means such as a .pgpass file, the connection attempt will fail. this option can be useful in batch jobs and scripts where no user is present to enter a password. no humans, no prompts. 🤖
• -W, --password — Force vacuumdb to prompt for a password before connecting to a database. 🔐

This option is never essential, since vacuumdb will automatically prompt for a password if the server demands password authentication. however, vacuumdb will waste a connection attempt finding out that the server wants a password. in some cases it is worth typing -W to avoid the extra connection attempt. saving yourself one (1) whole round trip. 💅

• --maintenance-db=dbname — When the -a/--all is used, connect to this database to gather the list of databases to vacuum. if not specified, the postgres database will be used, or if that does not exist, template1 will be used. this can be a connection string. if so, connection string parameters will override any conflicting command line options. also, connection string parameters other than the database name itself will be re-used when connecting to other databases. ♻️

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🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

• PGDATABASE
• PGHOST
• PGPORT
• PGUSER

Default connection parameters — the classic four. 🫶

• PG_COLOR — Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. possible values are always, auto and never. (set it to always if you're fun.) 🎨

This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 34.15).

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🩺 DIAGNOSTICS 🩺

In case of difficulty, see VACUUM(7) and psql(1) for discussions of potential problems and error messages. the database server must be running at the targeted host. also, any default connection settings and environment variables used by the libpq front-end library will apply. so if it's acting up, check those first, bestie. 😭🔍

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📝 NOTES 📝

vacuumdb might need to connect several times to the PostgreSQL server, asking for a password each time. it is convenient to have a ~/.pgpass file in such cases. see Section 34.16 for more information. save yourself the typing. 🙏

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🌟 EXAMPLES 🌟

To clean the database test:

$ vacuumdb test

To clean and analyze for the optimizer a database named bigdb:

$ vacuumdb --analyze bigdb

To clean a single table foo in a database named xyzzy, and analyze a single column bar of the table for the optimizer:

$ vacuumdb --analyze --verbose --table='foo(bar)' xyzzy

see, this is exactly why we told you about escaping those parentheses. 🎀

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

VACUUM(7)

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and that's the page, bestie! 💖 this whole thing comes to you courtesy of PostgreSQL 14.24, dated 2026, and yes — it's VACUUMDB(1) all the way down. go forth and vacuum responsibly. 🧚✨🫶