Re: [HACKERS] pg_dump core dump, upgrading from 6.5b1 to 5/24 snapshot

Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
>...
>Will fix both problems this evening.

Thanks!

>> The dumped data file is 15MB (no -d or -D option) or 22MB (with -D). The
>> core file is 13.8MB, which sounds like a memory leak in pg_dump.
>
>Not necessarily --- are the large text fields in a multi-megabyte table?

Yes, it's a 15MB file for the table.

>When you're using -D, pg_dump just does a "SELECT * FROM table" and then
>iterates through the returned result, which must hold the whole table.
>(This is another reason why I prefer not to use -d/-D ... the COPY
>method doesn't require buffering the whole table inside pg_dump.)

The -d/-D options are out now for my nightly backups. (Foolish of me to
have used them with backups in the first place!)

-- Ari Halberstadt mailto:ari(at)shore(dot)net <http://www.magiccookie.com/>
PGP public key available at <http://www.magiccookie.com/pgpkey.txt>