Claire McLister <mclister@zeesource.net> writes:
> We have a couple of tables (40,000 and 600,000 rows each) that I am
> trying to build an index on an integer column.
> When I issue the "create index foo_index on foo(id);" command in
> psql it just does not return. I've waited over half an hour for the
> smaller table.
It sounds like someone had a write lock on the table. Did you try
looking in pg_locks?
regards, tom lane