Out of memory error

pg 7.4.2 on RH 7.3

Hi,

Am getting "Out of memory error" and pgSql is getting killed when running the
following statement in psql:

insert into tableA
select * from tableB
where testdate >= '2000-01-01' and testdate <= '2002-12-31'

TableB contains about 120 million records. The insert/select affects about
30-40M.

What's happening is that pgSql gradually takes all (well, almost) physical and
swap memory and then, I think, is getting killed by the kernel.

Qs:

1) Is this normal?
2) Is there anything I can do besides adding more memory to the box?

Thanks

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