syntax error but command executes anyway? - Mailing list pgsql-general

Using PG 7.4.3 on Mac OS X 10.2.8, the following "insert into ... select ..."
statement completed and then announced a syntax error, which seems bizarre.

(Don't be confused by the fact that the two tables referred to
(public.identifiers and original.identifiers) have slightly different column
names.)

egenome_dev=# \!cat /Users/murphy/cvs/egora/sql/data_port/port_identifiers.sql
INSERT INTO public.identifiers (element_id, name, source, source_code, title)
        SELECT DISTINCT
                elementid,
                name,
                source,
                sourcecode,
                title
        FROM original.identifiers;
egenome_dev=# \i /Users/murphy/cvs/egora/sql/data_port/port_identifiers.sql
INSERT 0 1672036
psql:/Users/murphy/cvs/egora/sql/data_port/port_identifiers.sql:15: ERROR:
syntax error at or near "sourcecode" at character 2

A fuller psql transcript showing table layouts is below.

What should I make of this?

Thanks,
Kevin Murphy

P.S.  Full transcript:

egenome_dev=# \d original.identifiers
          Table "original.identifiers"
   Column   |         Type          | Modifiers
------------+-----------------------+-----------
 elementid  | integer               |
 nameid     | character varying(80) |
 name       | character varying(80) |
 source     | character varying(39) |
 title      | text                  |
 sourcecode | character varying(2)  |
Indexes:
    "identifiers_elementid_idx" btree (elementid)
    "identifiers_name_idx" btree (name)
    "identifiers_nameid_idx" btree (nameid)
    "identifiers_source_idx" btree (source)

egenome_dev=# select count(*) from original.identifiers;
  count
---------
 1685440
(1 row)

egenome_dev=# \d identifiers
           Table "public.identifiers"
   Column    |         Type          | Modifiers
-------------+-----------------------+-----------
 element_id  | integer               |
 name        | character varying(80) |
 source      | character varying(39) |
 source_code | character varying(2)  |
 title       | text                  |
Indexes:
    "identifiers_multi1_idx" btree (name, source)
    "identifiers_name_idx" btree (name)

[NOTE: the above indexes on original.identifiers are not the intended final
indexes; in fact, I had forgotten that they were there.]

egenome_dev=# truncate identifiers;
TRUNCATE TABLE

egenome_dev=# \!cat /Users/murphy/cvs/egora/sql/data_port/port_identifiers.sql
INSERT INTO public.identifiers (element_id, name, source, source_code, title)
        SELECT DISTINCT
                elementid,
                name,
                source,
                sourcecode,
                title
        FROM original.identifiers;

egenome_dev=# \i /Users/murphy/cvs/egora/sql/data_port/port_identifiers.sql
INSERT 0 1672036
psql:/Users/murphy/cvs/egora/sql/data_port/port_identifiers.sql:15: ERROR:
syntax error at or near "sourcecode" at character 2

                     
egenome_dev=# select count(*) from identifiers;
  count
---------
 1672036
(1 row)