Re: pg_dump core dumping

Chris Bowlby <excalibur@hub.org> writes:
>  Ok, running the select statement that was used in the core file, I get
> [ normal results ]

Okay, scratch that theory.  Looking at it a second time, I now think
this particular select is not directly at fault, but is simply losing
because pg_dump is out of memory (a condition libpq has never tolerated
very well :-().  But that still leaves us with the question of where the
memory went.  The stack trace shows that pg_dump is still collecting
schema information, and hasn't begun pulling down the contents of user
tables --- but how could it chew up 512Mb on schema information?

I would suggest turning on query logging (look in postgresql.conf) and
re-running pg_dump.  Perhaps a look at the series of queries it issues
will show that it's gotten stuck in a loop somewhere.

Another test that would be useful, if you happen to have a 7.3
installation handy, is to see if 7.3 pg_dump can dump this database.

            regards, tom lane