backend unstable, \d broken, groups broken was CVS 3-22-99 \d broken?

On Tue, 23 Mar 1999, Tom Lane wrote:

> James Thompson <jamest@math.ksu.edu> writes:
> >  [ psql's \d not working right ]
> 
> Hmm, it works OK for me on sources from Sunday --- and a quick check
> shows no interesting changes since then.  Either you've found a
> platform-specific bug, or you didn't rebuild correctly after cvs update.
>

Moved my old copy of the pgsql tree and checked out the entire thing
yestereday afternoon to insure a fresh copy.  Used all defaults

./configure 
make 
make install

\d still does not display complete table listings.  Everything (select,
insert, update, delete) seems to work though.  Regression test pass well
enough (error messages different, a few rounding errors, etc)

I have noticed a lot of little oddities.

I've noticed the backend is not stable.  I think it has something to do
with permissions/passwords. I don't have exact details but if I change
passwords, create users, or do a large quantity of grants the backend
seems to die when the db superuser exits psql.  At least the next login
fails due to no backend process running.  I must remove the /tmp/.s.* file
and restart the backend.  (Is there an error I can look at somewhere?)

The psql command  create user jamest;
does not work.  I must use createuser from the shell.

Groups do not work.  I can create the group using the insert command in 
the manual, I can add people to the group.  But those people cannot select
from the tables, some type of group 0 error occurs.

I apologize for being vague, my net connection for home was hideous last
night so I'm doing this from memory at work.

I've tried this on a "stock" RedHat 5.2 system (gcc and friends are the
RPMs that came with the system).  A modified RedHat 5.1 system with latest
gcc 2.7.x series compiler.  Both behave in the exact same mannor.

My previous CVS code from about a week ago didn't have the \d problem.  I
can't say on the other problems as I started using these features after my
recent cvs update.

Any ideas on where I should look for clues as to what has went wrong?

TIA

->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->---<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<
James Thompson    138 Cardwell Hall  Manhattan, Ks   66506    785-532-0561 
Kansas State University                          Department of Mathematics
->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->->---<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<-<