> I don't understand, are they going years between vacuums because their
> data is static? In which case the index correlation won't change. Or
> is it append-only, in which case I suspect the newly appended data is
> likely to have the same correlation as the old data. 

Append-only.  And yes, one could assume that correlation wouldn't change
frequently.   However, it may change more frequently than vacuums occur
-- I'm not exaggerating about "years".  I have several clients with
large databases where they have log tables which only get vacuumed for
XID wraparound, once every 2 years or so.

There's also the question of how we get correlation stats for a new
index/table, or one which has just been upgraded.  Requiring a full DB
vacuum isn't practical for those using pg_upgrade.

> But is there
> anything stopping us from doing some sort of ANALYZE-style sample of
> the index pages as well?

This would be ideal.  Or even a separate command to scan the indexes
only to collect correlation data.  Since the indexes are 20X to 100X
smaller than the tables (usually), it may be practical to full-scan them
even if we can't do the same with the table.

-- 
                                  -- Josh Berkus
                                     PostgreSQL Experts Inc.
                                     http://www.pgexperts.com

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