# vacuum_freeze_table_age

> vacuum_freeze_table_age — Age at which VACUUM should scan whole table to freeze tuples. Observed in PG9.0–19 Beta 3; its last measured boot default is 150000000 in PG19 Beta 3, with user context. This is a beta-snapshot fact and can change before PostgreSQL 19 GA.
---

> [!NOTE]
> **Fact — official short description:** “Age at which VACUUM should scan whole table to freeze tuples.”

## Identity {#identity}

| Field | Value | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Type | `integer` | Upstream pg_settings type |
| Context | `user` | Settable by an ordinary user |
| Unit | — | Raw unit |
| Range | `0` – `2000000000` | Raw limits in the last observed version |
| Enum values | — | — for non-enum types |
| Category | Vacuuming / Freezing | Upstream classification |
| Latest boot value | `150000000` | 150000000 |
{.fields meta="-"}

## Lifecycle {#lifecycle}

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| First observed | PG9.0 (research boundary) |
| Present in | PG9.0–19 Beta 3 |
| Removed in | No |
| Introduction commit | Not asserted: predates the PG9.0 research boundary |
| Commit date | — |
| Discussion | — |

## Default history {#default-history}

| Versions | Raw `boot_val` | Unit | Human value |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| PG9.0–19 Beta 3 | `150000000` | — | 150000000 |
{.full-width caption="Measured PG9.0–19 Beta 3 boot defaults"}

## How it works {#mechanism}

Sets the XID age at which VACUUM switches to an aggressive scan so it can advance a table’s relfrozenxid. It is a user-context setting.

An aggressive XID scan visits every page not already all-frozen and freezes eligible XIDs. PostgreSQL caps the effective value at 95% of autovacuum_freeze_max_age, leaving room for manual maintenance before forced anti-wraparound autovacuum.

Monitor age(relfrozenxid) and age(datfrozenxid), not relminmxid. The separate vacuum_multixact_freeze_table_age controls MXID-driven aggressive scans.

## Tuning advice {#tuning-advice}

> [!TIP]
> **Advice.** These are workload-specific starting points and must be validated with measurements.

| Workload | Guidance |
| --- | --- |
| OLTP | Set an XID aggressive-scan threshold that routine maintenance can reach and complete before autovacuum_freeze_max_age. Confirm full-table scan time on the largest relations. |
| OLAP | Schedule aggressive XID freezing for static or newly loaded partitions while I/O headroom is available; lowering the threshold can spread work across maintenance windows. |
| Small nodes | Keep the default and watch the oldest relfrozenxid in every database. Setting zero forces aggressive behavior for every VACUUM and is rarely appropriate globally. |
{.full-width}

## Pigsty {#pigsty}

Values use the fixed 8-vCPU, 32-GiB, 100-GiB SSD fixture and render the current Pigsty templates for PG19 Beta 3; this does not assert current Pigsty support for that historical or beta release.

| Template | Effective value | Versus upstream boot | Source expression |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| OLTP | Unmodified | — | — |
| OLAP | Unmodified | — | — |
| CRIT | Unmodified | — | — |
| TINY | Unmodified | — | — |
{.full-width}

> [!CAUTION]
> **Advice — pending human review.** Fact from the current Pigsty template projection: OLTP: PG9.0–19 Beta 3 unmodified; OLAP: PG9.0–19 Beta 3 unmodified; CRIT: PG9.0–19 Beta 3 unmodified; TINY: PG9.0–19 Beta 3 unmodified. No Pigsty-specific rationale is inferred from an absent override.

## Common pitfalls {#common-pitfalls}

- Monitoring relminmxid instead of the XID horizon relfrozenxid.
- Setting a value above 95% of autovacuum_freeze_max_age and assuming PostgreSQL will use it unchanged.
- Forcing aggressive scans too frequently on large mutable tables.
- Waiting for forced anti-wraparound autovacuum instead of measuring routine full-scan completion time.

## Related parameters {#related-parameters}

[`autovacuum_freeze_max_age`](/parameters/autovacuum-freeze-max-age/) · [`vacuum_freeze_min_age`](/parameters/vacuum-freeze-min-age/) · [`vacuum_failsafe_age`](/parameters/vacuum-failsafe-age/) · [`vacuum_multixact_freeze_table_age`](/parameters/vacuum-multixact-freeze-table-age/) · [`autovacuum`](/parameters/autovacuum/) · [`log_autovacuum_min_duration`](/parameters/log-autovacuum-min-duration/)

## References {#references}

- [PostgreSQL 19 Beta 3 — vacuum_freeze_table_age](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/19/runtime-config-vacuum.html#GUC-VACUUM-FREEZE-TABLE-AGE)
- [PostgreSQL 19 release notes](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/19/release-19.html)
- [Machine-readable GUC export](/data/guc.jsonl)