What the heck is happening here? - Mailing list pgsql-general

I have a mod_perl script that opens a database connection, and keeps it
open.  But every day the script stops running.  Today I look in the logs,
and at 10:37 I see my script detect a bad return from a $conn->exec of the
following query:
SELECT     id, datasource_key, type, name, address,
           state, country, latitude, longitude, declination,
           main_frequency, elevation, datasource
FROM       waypoint
WHERE      latitude >= -90 AND latitude <= 90 AND
           longitude >= -180 AND longitude <= 180 AND
           (country IN ('UNITED STATES') OR
           (state IN
('AK','AL','AR','AZ','CA','CO','CT','DC','DE','FL','GA','HI','IA','ID','IL','IN','KS','KY','LA','MA','MD','ME','MI','MN','MO','MS','MT','NC','ND','NE','NH','NJ','NM','NV','NY','OH','OK','OR','PA','RI','SC','SD','TN','TX','UT','VA','VT','WA','WI','WV','WY')
ANDcountry = 'UNITED STATES') OR 
           (state IN ('') AND country = 'CANADA') ) AND
           type IN ('AIRPORT','DME','FAN MARKER','MARINE
NDB','NDB','NDB/DME','TACAN','UHF/NDB','VOR','VOR/DME','VORTAC')
ORDER BY   id, datasource

(yeah, I know the query has some redundancy in it - that's not the problem
here) but it prints the following message:

message: Unknown protocol character 'Unknown protocol character '8' read from backend.  (The protocol character is the
firstcharacter the backend sends in response to a query it receives). 
Unknown protocol character '0' read from backend.  (The protocol character is the first character the backend sends in
responseto a query it receives). 
Unknown protocol character '.' read from backend.  (The protocol character is the first character the backend sends in
responseto a query it receives). 
Unknown protocol character '3' read from backend.  (The protocol character is the first character the backend sends in
responseto a query it receives). 
Unknown protocol character 'Unknown protocol character '.' read from backend.  (The protocol character is the first
characterthe backend sends in response to a query it receives). 

It returns all the query rows, but I do another query within the query,
and every one of those prints out the following error message:
    PQexec: you gotta get out of a COPY state yourself.
Which is kind of strange because I don't even know how to use COPY.

Then the next connection to the web server does the same thing, but the
next one gets the "you gotta get out of a COPY state yourself" on the big
query.

Any ideas?  Should I stop keeping the connection open so long?

--
Paul Tomblin <ptomblin@xcski.com>, not speaking for anybody
Your mouse has moved. Windows NT must be restarted for the change to
take effect. Reboot now?  [ OK ]