Re: cannot find attribute 1 of relation (of some user table) in 7.1.3

Dirk Lutzebaeck <lutzeb@aeccom.com> writes:
> Hi, I have the follow problem when vacuum'ing on 7.1.3:
> ERROR:  cannot find attribute 1 of relation docmatchsel
> Then I tried to reindex the table in standalone mode which gives:
> backend> reindex table docmatchsel force
> ERROR:  catalog is missing 4 attributes for relid 117042636

Bizarre.  Were there four columns altogether?

> docmatchsel was created as a temporary table in the application.

Since it's only a temporary table, my counsel is:

    1. delete from pg_class where relname = 'docmatchsel';

    2. pg_dump, initdb, reload.

You might be okay after just step 1, but given that we don't know what
caused this, an initdb seems like a good idea.

It would be interesting to go groveling through pg_attribute and see if
we can find any traces of the missing attribute rows, but unless you're
prepared to sift through the bits yourself (or give access to some
developer to do it), that's not going to happen.

            regards, tom lane