Re: tuplesort error from create index (?)

"Johnson, Shaunn" <SJohnson6(at)bcbsm(dot)com> writes:
> I am running Postgres 7.1 on Mandrake Linux 8.0,
> kernel version 2.4.16.

Could you upgrade to PG 7.1.3 and see if the problem is still there?

> I am trying to create an index on a table:
> database=> create index key_i on class (contract, memberid, date)
> and I get the following error:
> ERROR: tuplesort: unexpected end of data

Weird. Is it possible you are running out of disk space? (The sort to
create the index is probably using temporary disk files.) I should
think that you'd get an error saying that, though, not this error.

If you have lots of disk space, it'd be worth trying to pg_dump the
table, load it into a newly created database, and see if the error can
be reproduced on that fresh copy. Knowing whether the error can be
reproduced outside your existing database would be helpful.

regards, tom lane

PS: does anyone know if there are any serious bugs in Linux 2.4.16?
I recall hearing about some hasty updates of recent kernels, but am
not up-to-date on which versions to avoid.