Left and right of HWM? For goodness sake, it's an oracle variable, not the iron curtain! Let's not lose our sense of direction over this, OK? On 03/11/2004 10:40:41 AM, "Powell, Mark D" wrote: > I disagree with the definition given here. Space below the HWM has been > used to hold data while space above the HWM has been allocated to the object > but has never been used. The alter table deallocate command will only > release space above the HWM. > > From the Concepts Manual (ver 9.2) definition of "High Water Mark": > The high water mark is the boundary between used and unused space in a > segment. As requests for new free blocks that cannot be satisfied by > existing free lists are received, the block to which the high water mark > points becomes a used block, and the high water mark is advanced to the next > block. In other words, the segment space to the left of the high water mark > is used, and the space to the right of it is unused. > > -- Mark -- > > -----Original Message----- > From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Mladen Gogala > Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2004 11:39 PM > To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: Re: "Deallocate Unused" not releasing space above HWM > > > > On 03/10/2004 11:25:30 PM, vidya kalyanaraman wrote: > > Mladen > > Thanks for the reply. But I was under the impression that "deallocate > > unused" is supposed to clear off the "never been used blocks" (which is > > rep as empty_blocks), which is above the HWM. > > Am I making any mistake here? > > Yes you are. Blocks above HWM have been used, otherwise they wouldn't be > above the watermark. Watermark points to the row after the last inserted > row. What is the function of watermark, anyway? Watermark is here to for > oracle to know > a) where can it start with direct insert. > b) how many blocks must be read during the full table scan. > > So, location of the HWM is recorded in the table header. As you insert rows > in the table, > the HWM is moved. So, the only way a block can be above watermark is if it > was used. > You can allocate unused block with alter table emp allocate extent size > 32768M; > That will create a "never been kissed" extent, 32G in size. Alter table > deallocate unused > will rid you of those 32G. > -- > Mladen Gogala > Oracle DBA > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. > -- > Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ > FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. > -- > Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ > FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------