Re: Non-blocking vacuum full

[Ron Mayer <rm_pg(at)cheapcomplexdevices(dot)com>]

Heikki Linnakangas wrote:
> Peter Schuller wrote:
>> to have a slow background process (similar to normal non-full vacuums
> ... 
> I think it's doable, if you take a copy of the tuple, and set the ctid
> pointer on the old one like an UPDATE, and wait until the old tuple is
> no longer visible to anyone before removing it. It does require some
> changes to tuple visibility code.

Wouldn't just having this slow background process
repeatedly alternating between
 update table set anycol=anycol where ctid > [some ctid near the end]
and running normal VACUUM statements do what the original poster
was asking?  And with 8.3, I guess also avoiding HOT?