Glossary — in plain language

Visibility map


In plain English

The visibility map is a tiny side-structure that marks which pages of a table contain only rows visible to everyone (and which are fully frozen). It lets PostgreSQL skip work during vacuum and answer index-only scans without touching the heap.

Why it matters

It is why a well-vacuumed table gets fast index-only scans and quicker vacuums. Tables that are never vacuumed lose these benefits.

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