Re: problem with lost connection while running long PL/R query

"David M. Kaplan" <david.kaplan@ird.fr> writes:
> I have a query that uses a PL/R function to run a statistical model on
> data in a postgresql table.  The query runs the function 4 times, each
> of which generates about 2 million lines of results, generating a final
> table that has about 8 million lines.  Each time the function is called,
> it takes about ~3-5 minutes to finish its work. I know that the function
> is running fine as it gives me progress and I have had no trouble using
> it on slightly smaller datasets. However, this time it does the 4 runs,
> but ends with psql saying the connection to the server has been lost.
> In the postgresql log file, I have:

> 2013-05-16 14:05:47 CEST LOG:  server process (PID 27488) was terminated by signal 9: Killed

You've been hit by the dreaded OOM kill "feature" of Linux, as you can
confirm by looking into the kernel logs.  A lot of people just turn that
off, especially on servers.  Google for "memory overcommit" for more info.

            regards, tom lane