PostgreSQL is unable to reuse B-tree index
pages in certain cases. The problem is that if indexed rows are
deleted, those index pages can only be reused by rows with similar
values. For example, if indexed rows are deleted and newly
inserted/updated rows have much higher values, the new rows can't use
the index space made available by the deleted rows. Instead, such
new rows must be placed on new index pages. In such cases, disk
space used by the index will grow indefinitely, even if
VACUUM is run frequently.
As a solution, you can use the REINDEX command
periodically to discard pages used by deleted rows. There is also
contrib/reindexdb which can reindex an entire database.
