no-vacuum-full

What triggers it

Fires on any VacuumStmt whose options array contains a DefElem named full — VACUUM FULL, with or without an explicit table list.

What does not

Plain VACUUM or VACUUM (ANALYZE) without the FULL option never matches — the rule only looks for the full DefElem. Non-VacuumStmt statements return immediately too.

Where it applies

Applies to every PostgreSQL version MigrationPilot targets. It works on the SQL text alone — no database connection needed.

The lock, and what it blocks

VACUUM FULL rewrites the table to a new file under ACCESS EXCLUSIVE for the entire operation, blocking every read and write until it finishes — the doc notes this can take hours on a large table.

Why it matters

VACUUM FULL physically rewrites the entire table to reclaim disk space while holding an ACCESS EXCLUSIVE lock. Use pg_repack or VACUUM (without FULL) instead for online space reclamation.

Unsafe, and safe

VACUUM FULL users;

-- Use regular VACUUM (no lock) or pg_repack
VACUUM users;

What it assumes

The rule fires regardless of table size or actual bloat level, so a VACUUM FULL on a small or already-compact table is flagged the same as one on a huge bloated table where the lock genuinely matters.

What the CLI prints

✗ [MP006] CRITICAL (line 1)
  VACUUM FULL on "users" rewrites the entire table under ACCESS EXCLUSIVE lock. This blocks ALL reads and writes for the entire duration.

  Safe alternative:
  -- Use pg_repack instead (no ACCESS EXCLUSIVE lock during rewrite):
  -- Install: CREATE EXTENSION pg_repack;
  -- Run: pg_repack --table users --no-superuser-check

  Why: VACUUM FULL rewrites the entire table to a new file, holding an ACCESS EXCLUSIVE lock for the full duration. On large tables this can take hours. Use regular VACUUM or pg_repack for online table compaction instead.
  Docs: https://migrationpilot.dev/rules/mp006

Generated by running the CLI's own formatter over the flagged example above, so it is the text the tool actually produces. A real run also reports the other rules that fire on the same statement; those blocks are left out here.

Turning it off

For one statement, put a comment on the line before it:

-- migrationpilot-disable MP006
VACUUM FULL users;

For the whole project, in .migrationpilotrc.yml — by name or by id:

rules:
  MP006: false

# or keep it, and downgrade it
rules:
  MP006:
    severity: warning

Try it

Open this rule's flagged example in the playground. It runs in your browser — edit it and watch the finding appear and disappear.

Related rules

• MP032ban-clusterCLUSTER also rewrites the entire table
• MP020require-statement-timeoutlong-running operations need timeouts
• MP004require-lock-timeoutset lock_timeout before DDL