Re: COPY problem

Ron <rstpierre(at)syscor(dot)com> writes:
> I am creating a new database on a brand new server (P4, 1GB RAM,
> postgres 7.3.3, debian 3.0) and trying to populate one of the tables
> with the COPY command. I split a large file with 20 million records into
> 20 files, but when I run COPY I usually get the following message:

> analytics=# COPY tbl555 FROM '/usr/local/pgsql/xaa' WITH NULL AS '';
> ERROR: copy: line 167641, Query was cancelled.

"Query was cancelled" is not a failure that the database would ever
produce on its own. Something external to the Postgres code decided
to send SIGINT to either psql or the connected backend.

I suspect that you are running into some kind of resource-usage-limiting
functionality that you were not aware was active. Perhaps you have
"ulimit" settings that are restricting how long a process can run or how
much I/O it can do. It's a really bad idea to start the postmaster with
any non-infinite ulimit settings :-(. ulimit on the client side is not
so dangerous, but could still prevent you from getting your work done,
as in this case.

regards, tom lane