SET statement_timeout

We run VACUUM ANALYZE as a cron job on PostgreSQL v8.1.3 on an Opteron
box running FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE #10. We set statement_timeout to 7200000
in postgresql.conf. Since this task often takes longer than two hours we
  encounter the following messages in our log files:

2006-11-30 00:03:31 CST ERROR:  canceling statement due to statement timeout
2006-11-30 00:03:31 CST STATEMENT: VACUUM ANALYZE VERBOSE;

No big deal. We simply modified the cron job to:

set statement_timeout=0; VACUUM ANALYZE VERBOSE;

Should work, right?

Now we get the following entries in our log files:

2006-11-30 00:03:31 CST ERROR:  canceling statement due to statement timeout
2006-11-30 00:03:31 CST STATEMENT:  set statement_timeout=0; VACUUM
ANALYZE VERBOSE;

I imagine that I have a silly little mistake going on but I just can't
see it. Any ideas?

Thanks ...
--
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Andrew Rost
National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center (NOHRSC)
National Weather Service, NOAA
1735 Lake Dr. West, Chanhassen, MN 55317-8582
Voice: (952)361-6610 x 234
Fax: (952)361-6634
andy.rost@noaa.gov
http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov
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