Re: loading pg_description ... FATAL: duplicate key violates unique constraint "pg_description_o_c_o_index"

On Thu, Feb 09, 2006 at 10:24:38AM +0530, surabhi.ahuja wrote:
> thank u so much for the help.
> ok i ll tell u how i arrived at this problem.
>
> this i was using just for testing purpose on my local m/c
>
> i had deleted rows in a table, and had searched and found the following:

<snip>

> and did gmake install
>
> it got installed properly
>
> but when i did /usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb -D /homes/surabi/data
>
> it gave me this error:
> loading pg_description ... FATAL: duplicate key violates unique constraint "pg_description_o_c_o_index"
> child process exited with exit code 1
> initdb: removing contents of data directory "/homes/surabi/data"
>
> please tell me how to proceed. I just want to try this experiment for knowledge sake.

I think you're missing the problems with this patch. This can't be used
to do any real work because you can never delete rows and when updating
you'll get a copy of the old and the new. So all uniques indexes will
instantly break.

The purpose of this patch is not to install it and create a database
with it, but to temporarily use it to retreive your data. You can't
initdb with it. Even then if you have any deleted rows in the system
catalog, it won't work.

Basically, you run it over your existing installation, do the dump and
then go back to the normal installation. But you're playing with fire,
seriously!

Have a nice day,
--
Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog(at)svana(dot)org> http://svana.org/kleptog/
> Patent. n. Genius is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration. A patent is a
> tool for doing 5% of the work and then sitting around waiting for someone
> else to do the other 95% so you can sue them.