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+<!-- doc/src/sgml/pgvisibility.sgml -->
+
+<sect1 id="pgvisibility" xreflabel="pg_visibility">
+ <title>pg_visibility</title>
+
+ <indexterm zone="pgvisibility">
+ <primary>pg_visibility</primary>
+ </indexterm>
+
+ <para>
+ The <filename>pg_visibility</filename> module provides a means for examining the
+ visibility map (VM) and page-level visibility information of a table.
+ It also provides functions to check the integrity of a visibility map and to
+ force it to be rebuilt.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Three different bits are used to store information about page-level
+ visibility. The all-visible bit in the visibility map indicates that every
+ tuple in the corresponding page of the relation is visible to every current
+ and future transaction. The all-frozen bit in the visibility map indicates
+ that every tuple in the page is frozen; that is, no future vacuum will need
+ to modify the page until such time as a tuple is inserted, updated, deleted,
+ or locked on that page.
+ The page header's <literal>PD_ALL_VISIBLE</literal> bit has the
+ same meaning as the all-visible bit in the visibility map, but is stored
+ within the data page itself rather than in a separate data structure.
+ These two bits will normally agree, but the page's all-visible bit can
+ sometimes be set while the visibility map bit is clear after a crash
+ recovery. The reported values can also disagree because of a change that
+ occurs after <literal>pg_visibility</literal> examines the visibility map and
+ before it examines the data page. Any event that causes data corruption
+ can also cause these bits to disagree.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ Functions that display information about <literal>PD_ALL_VISIBLE</literal> bits
+ are much more costly than those that only consult the visibility map,
+ because they must read the relation's data blocks rather than only the
+ (much smaller) visibility map. Functions that check the relation's
+ data blocks are similarly expensive.
+ </para>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Functions</title>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><function>pg_visibility_map(relation regclass, blkno bigint, all_visible OUT boolean, all_frozen OUT boolean) returns record</function></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Returns the all-visible and all-frozen bits in the visibility map for
+ the given block of the given relation.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><function>pg_visibility(relation regclass, blkno bigint, all_visible OUT boolean, all_frozen OUT boolean, pd_all_visible OUT boolean) returns record</function></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Returns the all-visible and all-frozen bits in the visibility map for
+ the given block of the given relation, plus the
+ <literal>PD_ALL_VISIBLE</literal> bit of that block.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><function>pg_visibility_map(relation regclass, blkno OUT bigint, all_visible OUT boolean, all_frozen OUT boolean) returns setof record</function></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Returns the all-visible and all-frozen bits in the visibility map for
+ each block of the given relation.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><function>pg_visibility(relation regclass, blkno OUT bigint, all_visible OUT boolean, all_frozen OUT boolean, pd_all_visible OUT boolean) returns setof record</function></term>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Returns the all-visible and all-frozen bits in the visibility map for
+ each block of the given relation, plus the <literal>PD_ALL_VISIBLE</literal>
+ bit of each block.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><function>pg_visibility_map_summary(relation regclass, all_visible OUT bigint, all_frozen OUT bigint) returns record</function></term>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Returns the number of all-visible pages and the number of all-frozen
+ pages in the relation according to the visibility map.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><function>pg_check_frozen(relation regclass, t_ctid OUT tid) returns setof tid</function></term>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Returns the TIDs of non-frozen tuples stored in pages marked all-frozen
+ in the visibility map. If this function returns a non-empty set of
+ TIDs, the visibility map is corrupt.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><function>pg_check_visible(relation regclass, t_ctid OUT tid) returns setof tid</function></term>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Returns the TIDs of non-all-visible tuples stored in pages marked
+ all-visible in the visibility map. If this function returns a non-empty
+ set of TIDs, the visibility map is corrupt.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><function>pg_truncate_visibility_map(relation regclass) returns void</function></term>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Truncates the visibility map for the given relation. This function is
+ useful if you believe that the visibility map for the relation is
+ corrupt and wish to force rebuilding it. The first <command>VACUUM</command>
+ executed on the given relation after this function is executed will scan
+ every page in the relation and rebuild the visibility map. (Until that
+ is done, queries will treat the visibility map as containing all zeroes.)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+
+ <para>
+ By default, these functions are executable only by superusers and members of the
+ <literal>pg_stat_scan_tables</literal> role, with the exception of
+ <function>pg_truncate_visibility_map(relation regclass)</function> which can only
+ be executed by superusers.
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
+
+ <sect2>
+ <title>Author</title>
+
+ <para>
+ Robert Haas <email>rhaas@postgresql.org</email>
+ </para>
+ </sect2>
+
+</sect1>