-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Lane [mailto:tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us]
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2014 5:35 PM
To: Alban Hertroys
Cc: Khangelani Gama; Thomas Kellerer; pgsql-general@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] postgreSQL : duplicate DB names
Alban Hertroys <haramrae@gmail.com> writes:
> On 26 May 2014, at 10:28, Khangelani Gama <kgama@argility.com> wrote:
>> It's psql 8.0.4, OS is Red Hat Linux release 9 (Shrike
> 8.0.4? That went EOL almost 4 years ago and even then you should be
running a version around 8.0.26. You're 22 bugfix releases behind, which
likely includes fixes for several data-corruption issues.
> See: http://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/
8.0.x did not have any real defenses against transaction ID wraparound
(the behavior of forcing a shutdown when wraparound gets too close was
added in 8.1, and there was no built-in autovacuum back then either).
So my money is on this being a wraparound problem, ie, some dead but
never-vacuumed pg_database row has returned to visibility because its
deleting transaction is now "in the future".
If you're very lucky, vacuuming pg_database will fix it. But take a
backup *first*, in case you're not lucky and vacuuming makes things worse.
I'd shut down the postmaster and then make a physical copy (tarball) of
the whole data directory tree, just to be sure you can get back to where
you are.
As a former Red Hatter, I cannot resist making the point that your OS
version is even hoarier than your PG version, and is certainly full of
since-fixed bugs. You are *years* overdue for some serious attention to
software updates.
regards, tom lane
Thanks a lot Tom, And Thanks to everyone who responded. It looks like the
best option we have is to restore from the latest backup. And then plan to
do the upgrade in the near future.
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