Re: Query failed: ERROR: catalog is missing 1 attribute(s) for relid 456086

> otherwise you have a big problem.

Is this something that's likely to occur again (and
again)? How *big* of a problem would/could it cause
(corrupted table, db, installation, ...)? Also, how
would it be recovered from (backups, reindexing,
vacuum, ...)?

I'll have to see about running the memory tests. If it
does turn out there's bad memory, is replacing it the
only recourse?

Thanks,
CSN

--- Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> CSN <cool_screen_name90001(at)yahoo(dot)com> writes:
> > ERROR: catalog is missing 1 attribute(s) for relid
> > 456086 . in /var/www/html/lib.php on line 200
>
> Ugh. This indicates corruption in the system
> catalogs --- specifically,
> a missing pg_attribute row. These rows will
> normally be picked up with an
> indexscan, so it's possible that pg_attribute itself
> is fine and the
> trouble is corruption in
> pg_attribute_relid_attnum_index.
>
> > VACUUM gave the same error, but VACUUM FULL
> appears to
> > have fixed whatever the problem was.
>
> Sounds like blind luck to me. I'd have expected
> that you *might* escape
> alive by reindexing pg_attribute, otherwise you have
> a big problem.
>
> The only way that an error like that would go away
> by itself is if it
> wasn't really there at all --- that is, the apparent
> corruption only
> existed in in-memory copies of pg_attribute pages,
> and not on disk at
> all. I'd strongly recommend running some hardware
> diagnostics
> (memtest86, badblocks, etc). You might not be so
> lucky with the next
> dropped bit.
>
> regards, tom lane

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