# phpman > man > VACUUMDB(1) > **TLDR:** Garbage-collect and analyze a PostgreSQL database. > - Vacuum a specific database: `vacuumdb {{database_name}}` - Vacuum all databases: `vacuumdb {{-a|--all}}` - Vacuum a specific table in a database: `vacuumdb {{-t|--table}} {{table_name}} {{database_name}}` - Vacuum and update statistics for the query planner: `vacuumdb {{-z|--analyze}} {{database_name}}` - Perform a full vacuum (more aggressive, locks tables, rewrites the whole table): `vacuumdb {{-f|--full}} {{database_name}}` - Vacuum with verbose output: `vacuumdb {{-v|--verbose}} {{database_name}}` - Vacuum a database using multiple parallel jobs: `vacuumdb --jobs {{number_of_jobs}} {{database_name}}` *Source: tldr-pages* --- [VACUUMDB(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/VACUUMDB/1/markdown) PostgreSQL 14.23 Documentation [VACUUMDB(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/VACUUMDB/1/markdown) ## NAME vacuumdb - garbage-collect and analyze a PostgreSQL database ## SYNOPSIS **vacuumdb** [_connection-option_...] [_option_...] [ **-t** | **--table** _table_ [( _column_ [,...] )] ]... [_dbname_] **vacuumdb** [_connection-option_...] [_option_...] **-a** | **--all** ## DESCRIPTION vacuumdb is a utility for cleaning a PostgreSQL database. vacuumdb will also generate internal statistics used by the PostgreSQL query optimizer. vacuumdb is a wrapper around the SQL command **VACUUM**. There is no effective difference between vacuuming and analyzing databases via this utility and via other methods for accessing the server. ## OPTIONS vacuumdb accepts the following command-line arguments: ### -a ### --all Vacuum all databases. **[-d]** _dbname_ **[--dbname=]**_dbname_ Specifies the name of the database to be cleaned or analyzed, when **-a**/**--all** is not used. If this is not specified, the database name is read from the environment variable **PGDATABASE**. If that is not set, the user name specified for the connection is used. The _dbname_ can be a connection string. 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. **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. ### -f ### --full Perform “full” vacuuming. ### -F ### --freeze Aggressively “freeze” tuples. ### --force-index-cleanup Always remove index entries pointing to dead tuples. **Note** This option is only available for servers running PostgreSQL 12 and later. ### -j **--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. vacuumdb will open _njobs_ connections to the database, so make sure your max_connections setting is high enough to accommodate all connections. Note that using this mode together with the **-f** (FULL) option might cause deadlock failures if certain system catalogs are processed in parallel. **--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. **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. **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. **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. **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. **Note** This option is only available for servers running PostgreSQL 12 and later. ### -P **--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)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/VACUUM/7/markdown). **Note** This option is only available for servers running PostgreSQL 13 and later. ### -q ### --quiet Do not display progress messages. ### --skip-locked Skip relations that cannot be immediately locked for processing. **Note** This option is only available for servers running PostgreSQL 12 and later. ### -t **--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. **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. ### -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). ### --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. 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. **-?** ### --help Show help about vacuumdb command line arguments, and exit. vacuumdb also accepts the following command-line arguments for connection parameters: ### -h **--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. ### -p **--port=**_port_ Specifies the TCP port or local Unix domain socket file extension on which the server is listening for connections. ### -U **--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. ### -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. **--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. ## ENVIRONMENT **PGDATABASE** **PGHOST** **PGPORT** **PGUSER** Default connection parameters **PG**___**COLOR** Specifies whether to use color in diagnostic messages. Possible values are always, auto and never. This utility, like most other PostgreSQL utilities, also uses the environment variables supported by libpq (see Section 34.15). ## DIAGNOSTICS In case of difficulty, see [**VACUUM**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/VACUUM/7/markdown) and [**psql**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/psql/1/markdown) 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. ## 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. ## 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 ALSO [**VACUUM**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/VACUUM/7/markdown) PostgreSQL 14.23 2026 [VACUUMDB(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/VACUUMDB/1/markdown)