Re: What to do after an "ERROR: out of memory"

"John Cheng" <chonger.cheng@gmail.com> writes:
> We were updating a large set of data (executing a stored procedure
> against a large set of data in one statement/transaction) while
> autovacuum was running.

> The resulting message looked like:

> 2008-07-28 21:18:08 CDT CONTEXT: automatic vacuum of table
> "databasename._lms.sl_log_2" TopMemoryContext: 154528 total in 18
> blocks; 19104 free (62 chunks); 135424 used
>   ....
> 2008-07-28 21:28:53 CDT database_other ERROR: out of memory
> 2008-07-28 21:48:13 CDT ERROR:
> canceling autovacuum task
>   ...

Given the time delays there, I don't think the out-of-memory in the
update had anything to do with the autovacuum cancel.  Evidently
something sent the autovac process a SIGINT, but it wasn't as a result
of the memory issue.  Perhaps someone just mis-aimed a pg_cancel_backend
call?

            regards, tom lane