JVM crash when select count(*) on large table through JDBC

Hello,

I have a curious problem, which I would like to know whether somebody
can reproduce this: From a JVM using JDBC, I issue

    select count(*) from big_table

where big table has more than 20 million entries (timestamps and
numbers). Upon PreparedStatement.executeQuery(), the VM quits, without
any message.

Java VM: 1.4.2-16 (latest one)
Pg-Jdbc: JDBC3 Postgresql Driver, Version 8.3-603
Server:  PostgreSQL 8.1.11 (on Debian etch)

The most surprising thing is the lack of any error message (I had
expected a TimeOutException, or OutOfMemoryError, or the like), as if
someone had called System.exit().

The same commando, when executed through pgAdmin III, works.

As suggested on the website (http://jdbc.postgresql.org/lists.html), I
have searched the mailing lists, to no avail so far.

I would highly appreciate any reproduction of these results, or
suggestions for remedy.

Kind regards,

  Kai Ruhl