Re: Problem w/ dumping huge table and no disk space

David Ford <david@blue-labs.org> writes:
> $ postgres --version
> postgres (PostgreSQL) 7.1beta5

You're still running beta5?  (bites tongue ...)

Update to 7.1.3.  AFAIR you should be able to do that without initdb.
That will fix your WAL growth problems and allow you to do the large
DELETE you wanted.

> 1) If I run pg_dump, it runs for about 20 minutes the aborts abruptly w/
> out of memory err, pg_dump is killed by the kernel and postgres spews
> pipe errors until it reaches the end of the table or I kill it.

Are you trying to run pg_dump with -d or -D switch?  If so, try it without.

            regards, tom lane