Specs

compact(GenServer.server()) :: :ok | {:error, String.t()}

Runs a database compaction.

As write operations are performed on a database, its file grows. Occasionally, a compaction operation can be run to shrink the file to its optimal size. Compaction runs in the background and does not block operations.

Only one compaction operation can run at any time, therefore if this function is called when a compaction is already running, it returns {:error, :pending_compaction}.

When compacting, CubDB will create a new data file, and eventually switch to it and remove the old one as the compaction succeeds. For this reason, during a compaction, there should be enough disk space for a second copy of the database file.

Compaction can create disk contention, so it should not be performed unnecessarily often.