Re: Query Failed, out of memory

On Oct 5, 2006, at 11:56 , Mark Woodward wrote:

> I am using the netflix database:
>     Table "public.ratings"
>  Column |   Type   | Modifiers
> --------+----------+-----------
>  item   | integer  |
>  client | integer  |
>  day    | smallint |
>  rating | smallint |
>
>
> The query was executed as:
> psql -p 5435 -U pgsql -t -A -c "select client, item, rating, day from
> ratings order by client" netflix > netflix.txt
>
>
> My question, it looks like the kernel killed psql, and not  
> postmaster. The
> postgresql log file complained about a broken pipe.
>
> Question, is this a bug in psql? It took over 4 hours of run time  
> before
> the crash.

The OOM killer kills a process based on some heuristics but it is  
just a guess. For reliable behavior, configure Linux to 1) disable  
the OOM killer 2) stop overcommitting memory. Then, you should be  
able to get the results you require.

-M